Rape: The Presumption of Guilt

It was the government of the supposedly illiberal and hard-nosed Margaret Thatcher that brought in the Police and Criminal Evidence Act. It regulated the detention of suspects in police cells, brought in procedures for identity parades and made it possible for solicitors to be present at their clients’ interviews. So much of what was brought in then is now taken for granted, but gradually over the years I have seen the safeguards for defendants in court being eroded. My experience has been in police stations and courts in England, but the trends may be observed in other parts of the English-speaking world, and nowhere is the retreat from the presumption of innocence so noticeable as in cases involving sexual offences.

In the world in which I grew up young ladies did not go into pubs on their own. Likewise they did not go to clubs and drink to the small hours while looking around for a male to latch on to. If you did drink, it would be cider, and in half-pints only, or shandy, a…