Police in England and Wales have been forced to scrap controversial digital evidence gathering in rape cases, after women’s rights campaigners likened the process to the “digital strip searching” of victims.
Just one year after the Crown Prosecution Service (CPS) introduced new policy around the disclosure of private information in sexual offence cases, a legal threat from two abuse survivors, ‘Courtney’ and ‘Olivia’, has resulted in the removal of controversial digital data consent forms.
The women were backed by the Centre for Women’s Justice (CWJ) and funded by the Equality and Human Rights Commission, following a sustained campaign from privacy and human rights groups. They warned that women’s private, intimate data was being trawled by defence teams eager to discredit victims, and that accusers who refused to consent to intrusive data searches were seeing their cases dropped by prosecutors.
“My experience with the police and CPS was degrading and unlawful,” ‘Olivia’ explains. “I was raped by a stranger and the police demanded seven years of irrelevant data from me that predated the rape. Infuriatingly, the police and CPS have repeatedly said to the press that they only pursue reasonable lines of enquiry. This is untrue. I hope now that other women won’t be subjected to these unlawful requests.”
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