§ Mr. Dickensasked the Attorney-General what is his policy on the prosecution of cases involving sexual offences when the victim is a child and no other witness is available to give evidence, although other corroborating evidence is available.
§ The Attorney-GeneralMy guidelines as to the criteria for prosecution require the Director of Public Prosecutions to consider first whether the evidence is sufficient to afford a reasonable prospect of conviction; if he is so satisfied, he will then consider whether in the particular case the public interest requires the institution of criminal proceedings.
The first of these questions requires that he takes account of the factors referred to by the hon. Member.
A requirement of corroboration may arise in one of three ways. First, there are certain classes of offence (including offences under sections 2, 3 and 4 of the Sexual Offences Act 1956) for which corroboration is required by statute; secondly, section 38 of the Children and Young Persons Act 1938 (which renders admissible the unsworn evidence of a child of tender years) imposes an identical requirement whatever the nature of the alleged offence; thirdly, there is a rule of practice at common law requiring that juries be warned that it is dangerous to convict on the uncorroborated evidence of witnesses who fall into certain categories—one of which is children even where the evidence is sworn. In each case the test applicable to determine the nature and extent of the corroboration required is the same.
The Court of Appeal has held that to constitute corroboration evidence
must be independent testimony which affects the accused by connecting or tending to connect him with the crime. In other words, it must be evidence which implicates him, that is, which confirms in some material particular not only the evidence that the crime has been committed but also that the defendant committed it.Where the Director is satisfied as to the sufficiency of the evidence he will, in assessing the public interest, ordinarily take a serious view of offences involving sexual assaults on children.
§ Mr. Dickensasked the Attorney-General how many cases the Director of Public Prosecutions has considered in each of the last five years of allegations of sexual offences against children; and in how many such cases he has decided not to prosecute on the grounds that no prosecution witness would be available other than the child concerned.
§ The Attorney-GeneralThe Departmental records maintained by the Director do not include the reasons for decisions to prosecute or not to prosecute in respect of any class of case. The information sought by the hon. Member could be obtained only by individual scrutiny of every file dealt with by the Director of Public Prosecutions during the relevant period which included an allegation of a50W sexual offence against a child. In view of the number of such files this exercise would result in disproportionate expense for the taxpayer.