Handbook on Sexual Violence (33 page)

We acknowledge that the existing funding arrangements for Sexual Assault Referral Centres vary across the country, and we would not wish to be prescriptive about how they are set up and run. However, it is clear to us that there is a greater chance of success when there is a strong partnership between the NHS, the police and elements of local

government, and equal commitment in the setting up and operation of a Sexual Assault Referral Centre. We recommend this commitment should be shared equally by the police, the NHS and local government.

(67: 2010)

Cold cases

The investigation of historic unsolved crimes or ‘cold cases’ has only developed in the past ten years, as a result of changes in the law and scientific advances that have opened up this new area of criminal investigation. The advances of DNA technology
9
and the development of the national DNA database have enabled the Police Service to apply scientific processes that

were not available when the original investigations were undertaken. In England and Wales the investigation of cold cases initially focused on availability of DNA technology, but advances in fingerprint work and the ability to prosecute ‘double jeopardy’
10
cases have also proved valuable.

February 2003 saw the establishment of the Cold Case Rape Investigation Team within the Metropolitan Police Service. This unit was originally set up as a pilot and initially focused on linked series offences. The Home Office provided funding to support forensic analysis of potential DNA material held by the Forensic Science Service (FSS). As a result of the pilot work, the Home Office Police Standards Unit commenced Operation Advance on a national basis in January 2004. Operation Advance examined unsolved serious sexual offences from the late 1980s and early 1990s (Home Office 2004). By 2007 Operation Advance had reviewed over 11,000 cases (outside London) and had gained 30 convictions. During a similar period the Metropolitan Police Service Cold Case Team had obtained 40 convictions from reviewing over 900 cases (Yexley 2008).

The MPS cold case teams demonstrate the success of working in partnership with criminal justice agencies to bring to justice men who had long since thought they had evaded capture. It consists of a dedicated team of detectives working with a crime analyst. The key to effective cold case investigation is the establishment of specialist partnership arrangements and protocols. In London this works with specialist detectives, lawyers, forensic practitioners and scientists. The investigative process involves examining evidential material retained in storage in forensic archives and applying new scientific processes to them. The application of new forensic processes to old retained material can result in the development of new DNA profiles to be loaded on to the national DNA database. In the UK that national DNA database is run and maintained by the National Policing Improvement Agency (NPIA). If a match is made on the database, the cold case team work with the Crown Prosecution Service to ensure that there is a strong evidential case before a decision is made to contact a victim. Careful consideration is given to approaching a victim of a historic case: ‘each approach to a victim is carefully risk assessed, and will only be made after careful consideration of the likelihood of a conviction by the CPS. In addition to the deployment of a local SOIT officer, the healthcare

needs of the victim are considered as a priority’ (Yexley 2009b).

Cold case investigations often attract media attention with some cases being widely reported. For example in 2006 Fion Gunn described how officers approached her from the MPS cold case team. They told her they had found the man who seriously sexually assaulted her some 15 years before (Stuart 2006). The original attack involved oral penetration, in Fion’s home, in the presence of her young baby. Re-examination of evidence seized at the time allowed investigators to identify Christopher Cleary, a man with convictions for sexual offences, as a suspect. He was subsequently convicted and sentenced to ten years’ imprisonment.

Another widely reported case involved a series of sex attacks against teenage girls that commenced in 1989, that were solved some 17 years later. The attacks took place between 1989 and 1996 in recreational areas in south London and north Surrey (Fresco 2006). The victims were all female aged between 13 and 16 years, they were abducted and sexually assaulted with the threat of a knife. The cases were linked by investigators, but remained unsolved. Anthony DeBoise, a local government planning officer, was not known to police but became a suspect for the offences when he was arrested for an unrelated matter. A sample of DNA taken while he was in custody matched crime scene stains from the north Surrey series. Further forensic analysis linked the two series and DeBoise pleaded guilty to a series of counts relating to his attacks. His victims now in their twenties were present at Southwark Crown Court to see DeBoise sentenced to 13 years’ imprisonment. These cases demonstrate how scientific developments and the work of specialist teams can deliver justice for the victims of serious crimes.

In May 2010 the London
Evening Standard
reported that the MPS cold case

team had reviewed over 1,100 crimes and convicted 58 men of 125 offences. The team have also ‘loaded’ a further 112 new DNA profiles of unsolved crimes onto the national DNA database (Davenport 2010).

Conclusions

In this chapter we have presented an overview of key developments in the investigation of rape in England and Wales including: STOs; advances in DNA technology; SARCs and cold case work. In doing so we have reflected the increasing focus on victim care and professionalising the investigative process, both of which, we believe, represent significant steps forward for victims and criminal justice professionals. The developments discussed in this
chapter have emerged from a range of origins including police and Crown Prosecution Service initiatives, government (through the auspices of the Home Office) initiatives and on occasion through the determination of a small group of individuals. Progress in rape investigation policy and practice often seems to occur through a process of attention being raised about an issue by feminist campaigning groups, activists or media controversy; changes being made or at least piloted on an operational level by the police and non-governmental organisations; and then when they are proven to work they are adopted by the government. It is questionable whether this could be considered a ‘best

practice’ or ‘gold standard’ approach to dealing with an offence which affects more than four in ten women and over a quarter of men over their lifetime (McGee
et al
. 2002).

Most of the developments in rape investigation outlined in this
chapter ultimately point to forensics evidence being the key. This is supported by Andy Feist and colleagues’ 2007 research which included 676 cases from eight police forces across England and Wales. They found five factors best predicted whether a case would get to court or result in a conviction, one of which was that forensic evidence was recovered.

Despite the improvements in case building, investigators and prosecutors are still left with the age-old problem of attitudes towards rape and sexual violence. When discussing attitudes we include their own but also those of the general public. A number of unrelated surveys have explored the general public’s attitudes towards rape, including Amnesty International (2005), Scottish Executive (2007) and Home Office (2009) and the most recent the Havens’ ‘Wake up to rape’ report (Opinion Matters 2010). Fairly similar findings emerge across these surveys but due to the different questions asked direct comparisons cannot be drawn. To give the reader a sense of the attitudes the surveys pick up, we outline a few findings from the Havens’ report (Opinion Matters 2010), which surveyed a random sample of 1,061 people in London aged 18 to 50 online. Close to one in five respondents agree with the statement, ‘most claims of rape are probably not true’ (18%). This suggests that the general public are not aware of the existing evidence which suggests that only between 3–8 per cent of rape allegations are false (Kelly
et al
. 2005). Further, there are many situations in which some people feel that a person should take responsibility for being raped. Over half (56 per cent) of those surveyed think that there are some circumstances where a person should accept responsibility. These circumstances are: performing another sexual act on a person (73 per cent); getting into bed with a person (66 per cent); drinking to excess/blackout (64 per cent); going back to theirs for a drink (29 per cent); dressing provocatively (28 per cent); dancing in a sexy way with a man at a night club or bar (22 per cent); acting flirtatiously (21 per cent); kissing them (14 per cent); accepting a drink and engaging in a conversation at a bar (13 per cent).

What these independent surveys do not tell us is whether there have been attitudinal changes over time. Many of the surveys that have been done have asked different questions and used different populations, which inhibits direct comparison consequently scant evidence exists to indicate whether attitudes have changed over time (Brown
et al
. 2010a). One of the only replication studies was conducted in February 2010. This reran the questions from a 1977 survey and conducted a comparative analysis (Brown
et al
. 2010b). The original 1977 poll of opinions on rape was commissioned by the
Daily Mail
, partly in response to a rape case which was widely reported in the press at the time because of a particularly lenient sentence. The poll asked respondents about which offence types they saw as most serious, whether they thought these offences had increased, whether they personally knew someone who had been raped, whether they agreed or disagreed with a range of statements about rape victims and offenders, which factors they thought should be and which

actually were taken into consideration when deliberating punishment for those found guilty of rape, and how women should react if they were raped. The results of this poll were reported in the
Daily Mail
on 1 July 1977. The 2010 survey found that opinions on rape remain negative in some ways (for example that the law is unfair on rape victims and that many people would not report rape to the police or were unsure). However, in other ways the findings were optimistic (for example that rape is a serious crime; less support for the opinions that if a woman gets raped it is usually her fault and that the prior sexual experience of the woman should be taken into consideration when punishing those found guilty of rape).

Further reading

To understand more about the relationship between investigators and prosecutors in England and Wales see
A Protocol Between the Police and Crown Prosecution Service in the Investigation and Prosecution of Allegations of Rape
(Crown Prosecution Service 2008). The most recent guidance on prosecuting rape cases can be found in
CPS Policy for Prosecuting Cases of Rape
(Crown Prosecution Service 2009). The most detailed reports on the investigation and prosecution of rape in England and Wales are
The Report on the Joint Inspection into the Investigation and Prosecution of Cases involving Allegations of Rape
(HM Inspectorate of Constabularies and HM Crown Prosecution Service Inspectorate 2002) and
Without Consent: A Report on the Joint Review of the Investigation and Prosecution of Rape Offences
(HM Crown Prosecution Service Inspectorate 2007). However, for the most up-to-date perspective on what’s happening nationally see
The Stern Review
(2010). For more general information on criminal investigations in England and Wales, including sections on sexual offences, see
Understanding Criminal Investigation
(Tong
et al
. 2009).

Notes

1. The views expressed in this chapter are solely those of the authors. They do not represent those of the Metropolitan Police Service.
   

2. All details of the cases referred to in this chapter are publicly available. When appropriate some details are anonymised or changed to protect victims/witnesses/ suspects or organisations.
   

3. The Stern Review was an independent review into the treatment of rape complaints by public authorities in England and Wales. It was commissioned by the Government Equalities Office and Home Office in 2009 and conducted by Baroness Vivien Stern. It made 23 recommendations and due to the change in government shortly after the review was published it is unclear at this time whether they will be implemented.
   

4. The need for a forensic examination would be based on the initial assessment of the case and a discussion between the STO and SOE.
   

5. SARCs were first developed in England and Wales in the 1980s based on similar models which existed in North America, Canada and Australia. Their primary focus is on providing services for those in the aftermath of a recent rape. SARCs have the dual aim of meeting the needs of both victims and the Criminal Justice System (Lovett
   et al
   . 2004). They are discussed in more depth later in this chapter.
   

6. The Innocence Project is a national litigation and public policy organisation in the
   

   USA dedicated to exonerating wrongfully convicted people through DNA testing and reforming the criminal justice system to prevent future injustice (see www.theinnocenceproject.org).
   

7. The Sexual Offences Development Team aims to respond to sexually motivated crime at the highest possible forensic level. There is a dedicated fingerprint team, which specialises in providing interpretation and corroboration evidence incorporating graphics, which has proved crucial in consent cases. Each borough in London has forensic Sexual Offence Liaison Officers (SOLOs) who are there to forensically support police officers and Haven staff.
   

8. ‘Special measures’ are available to assist vulnerable and intimidated witnesses to give their best evidence in criminal proceedings. The special measures apply to prosecution and defence witnesses, but not the defendant. Special measures are available to defence witnesses in the youth court. Special measures include: screens; live link; evidence given in private; removal of wigs and gowns; a video-recorded interview; examination of the witness through an intermediary; and aids to communication. For further information see the Crown Prosecution Service legal guidance at http://www.cps.gov.uk/legal/s_to_u/special_measures/
   

9. The current method of DNA profiling, developed in June 1999, the SGM Plus
   1
   ,
   

   gives an average discrimination potential for one in a billion.
   

10. Until the Criminal Justice Act of 2003 was passed the criminal law of England and Wales did not permit a person who had been acquitted or convicted of an offence to be retried for that offence. The risk of the retrial is known as double jeopardy.