§ Mr. ButcherTo ask the Prime Minister if he will order a review of the Crown prosecution papers on the case of the arrest of Ranjeet Matharu for the rape of a 19-year-old Swedish woman with a view to establishing how(a) the Crown Prosecution Service and (b) police procedures can be improved. [35101]
§ The Attorney-GeneralI have been asked to reply.
No review is possible of the case to which my hon. Friend refers because it arose in 1988–89 and in accordance with Crown Prosecution Service procedures the file would have been destroyed three years thereafter. It is the recollection of the police officer concerned with the case that lack of corroboration, which at that date required a specific warning to the jury, was an important factor on the decision not to proceed with charges of rape and buggery. The Government have since implemented in section 32 of the Criminal Justice and Public Order Act 1994 the recommendation of the royal commission on criminal justice that the rule that juries should be warned of the danger of convicting without corroboration in sexual offences should be abolished.
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