Silence pervaded the courtroom. Faces displayed apprehension as everyone glowered at the animal in the dock; a wry smirk traversed his face while the helpless young victim sat frozen to her seat. Time stood still as the Judge asked the jury if they had reached a decision- yes your Honour, we have a verdict- the woman’s heart began to beat rapidly as she clenched her father’s hand for support- this was the moment of truth; judgement day. She knew he deserved maximum chastisement for destroying her life. But as the words- ‘not guilty’- tripped from the Head Juror’s mouth, the woman dropped her head in her hands and wept uncontrollably. Her father stood up and shouted obscenities at the offender who merely sat there in an arrogant pose, seemingly celebrating in his glory. The woman’s distraught mother was comforted by a female detective while sobbing in her arms, ‘it’s not fair- my poor baby.’ Even the Detectives in charge of the case sat in disbelief- no-one expected this outcome- so much evidence, so much guilt. The victim managed to lift her head to absorb a courtroom scene of utter bewilderment; she shook her head in disapproval while looking angrily into the eyes of the beast.

This is, regrettably, another situation of grave injustice. But it is not isolated. A recent consultation paper by the Home Office estimated that fewer than 6 per cent of rape cases reported to the police ultimately result in a conviction. According to the British Crime survey, they represent only 15 per cent of all rapes, most of which still goes entirely unreported. Whilst the number of rape convictions has remained relatively stable, the number of rapes reported to the police is increasing each year- this means that the proportion of rapes ending with a conviction is, unfortunately, declining. The Home Office highlighted that this decrease, from 33 per cent (one in three) of cases reported to the police in 1977, to 7.5 per cent (one in thirteen cases) in 1999, and to 5.29 per cent (one in twenty cases) in 2004, is incredibly low and needs improving.

Rape is the most traumatic horror that a woman can endure and society is plagued by a plethora of rape claims on a daily basis. Some women feel humiliated; others feel angry or guilty. A number of women pretend nothing has happened and continue to live their lives while others cannot cope and need psychiatric help to come to terms with their ordeal. Nevertheless, one thing is evident- rape scars these women for the rest of their lives. The nightmares; the flashbacks; the trust. What would enable these women to resume their lives more easily is the assurance that the man who attacked them is behind bars and cannot hurt them again. Knowing that he is free to roam the streets is the most frightening aspect for a woman who has been raped- especially if the man was a stranger. Sophie Barber*, 22, was raped after a night out two years ago by a man she did not know. She immediately reported the incident to the police but it took a further two weeks for the man to be caught. She said: ‘they were the longest two weeks of my life- I was scared to go outside in case I saw him. I looked at every man with suspicion, condemning each and every one because they held a slight resemblance- it was terrible and I was relieved when they caught him.’

The fall in conviction rates is so disappointingly low that The Times recently printed an article entitled, ‘Counties Where Less than 1% of Rape Cases End in Jail.’ This is a shocking statistic that sent all the wrong messages to both potential rapists and victims – the would-be rapist will feel confident of getting off “Scott free” whilst any unfortunate victim’s fight for justice is bound to fail, so why be subjected to further trauma to no avail!

Even Mike O’Brien, the Solicitor-General who signed the recent consultation paper on the law of rape, noted, with a breathtaking understatement, that “an awful amount of people who are committing rapes are getting away with it.”

The huge geographical variation in the number of rape convictions across England and Wales places people in the Gloucestershire police force area at the bottom. Just 0.86 per cent of reported male and female rapes in Gloucestershire resulted in a conviction in 2004, compared with almost 14 per cent in Northamptonshire. Only four of 42 forces in England and Wales had rape conviction rates of more than 10 per cent, according to the Home Office. Louise Burrows*, 21, from the West Midlands, suffered injustice after her attacker escaped conviction, despite the horrific way he raped her. She said: “It’s outrageous that a rapist may not be convicted because of the region he lives in- the law should apply collectively. I felt so angry when I saw him being let off because I knew he was free to strike again- I didn’t want another woman to have to go through what I did.”

Vera Baird, chair of the Society’s Commission on Women and the Criminal Justice System said that there was good work being performed in some parts of the UK but other areas were lagging behind. She said: “we need an integrated approach that gives women all over the country confidence in the system, delivers justice, and prevents violence in the first place.” It is becoming increasingly common for women who have been raped to remain silent because they feel they have little or no chance of getting justice.

However, huge efforts have been undertaken by police to encourage women to report rape and, as a result, subsequent reports have risen from just 4,900 in 1995 to 14,100 in 2004. The government has also embarked on improving the conviction rate. The Crown Prosecution Service have trained 520 specialist rape prosecutors to ensure that all rape cases are prepared by experts; guidance has been produced for police on investigating serious sexual offences; and national police training on sexual offences is now under development.

Yet despite this progress, a vast amount of allegations never lead to prosecution- only 516 of the 2,481 rapes reported in the Metropolitan Police district resulted in prosecution, with just 121 convictions.

It seems unfair that if the crime at issue were murder, British justice would now be in the dock, but rape is so much more complex- damaging victims in multifarious ways- and, therefore, much harder to prosecute. Cases often resort to a relentless game of ‘he said, she said’, between the accuser and defendant, whether true or false, it makes it unduly difficult for the jury to make a decision. That said, even though the circumstances are absolutely in favour of the accuser and regardless of concrete evidence, video footage or prime witnesses of an attack, it is apparent that the prime single factor to a conviction is the issue of ‘consent’. However, the consent problem is much more complicated than simply saying ‘yes’ or ‘no’.

It can be eventually dragged out of the defendant that sexual intercourse occurred with the victim, but the defence then leans on the premise that the defendant ‘thought’ it was consensual because of body language? Groans of pleasure? - when in actual fact the victim was experiencing the ultimate in horror and pain.

Consent has forever been the ‘Achilles heel’ of rape cases but, gradually, actions are being adopted to improve the current state of affairs. The Sexual Offences Act 2003 has correspondingly overhauled the legal framework for dealing with sexual offences by strengthening the law on consent. It has created, for the first time, a definition of consent and removed the defence that a person could avoid conviction for rape if he had an honest but mistaken belief in consent- it is too soon, however, to judge whether this has made a difference to conviction rates.

In this spring’s Home Office Consultation Paper, the government also tackled this issue, which has been a conundrum for some time. Its main aim was clear; seeking to create greater legal protection for victims by clarifying the law on consent. In section 75 of the paper, a list of circumstances, in which it is presumed a complaint did not consent, were initiated. These are as follows:

• Where the victim was asleep or unconscious or could not communicate consent because of a physical disability; and

• Where the victim had been given a substance without their consent that was capable of causing them to be overpowered at the time the alleged rape took place. This includes the scenario when the woman’s drink is spiked. Therefore, in light of this information, in a case where a complaint was rendered unconscious by drink, it can be presumed that she did not consent. This nature of case is becoming increasingly frequent in modern society where date rape is ubiquitous - but with a clear definition on consent, cases can begin to receive the justice they deserve.

However, societal attitudes also contribute to low conviction rates. Stereotypes and myths of rape are rife but these need to be discarded- only then can people comprehend that rape, in whatever context, is unacceptable. If society is more vigilant and the government can continue introducing measures to help victims of rape then conviction rates will ultimately rise and provide women with the justice they are entitled to- only then can they begin to rebuild their lives.

* Names have been changed for the consideration of the women mentioned.