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‘Catastrophic’ decline in rape prosecutions has effectively decriminalised rape, victims commissioner warns

A “CATASTROPHIC” decline in rape prosecutions is allowing persistent predatory sex offenders to continue attacking women, the victims commissioner warned today.

In her annual report, Dame Vera Baird said that rape had effectively become decriminalised by the collapse in prosecutions, adding that the Crown Prosecution Service (CPS) was doing nothing to address the problem. 

She wrote that “we are failing to give justice to thousands of complainants.

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