Criminals are gaming the system by pleading not guilty and relying on crippling trial delays to evade justice, The Independent has been told.
Laying bare the extent of the crisis in the courts, figures obtained by this publication suggest the number of cases waiting more than three years for a verdict has skyrocketed at least sevenfold since 2019 to exceed 1,280 last June.
As delays have soared, the proportion of early guilty pleas has plummeted – falling by nearly half in four years – as suspects try to manipulate the system.
And as the backlog grows, victims of rape and sexual assault have described the pain of their trauma being dragged out over years, as they wait for their cases to be pursued.
Have you been affected by the courts backlog? Email andy.gregory@independent.co.uk
A record 134 rape cases were among the 5,776 trials waiting more than two years as of September, analysis by The Independent has found.
That compares to just 10 rape cases out of the 344 hit by the same length of delay in 2019. The number of other sexual offence cases delayed for more than two years has also soared, from 38 five years ago to an all-time high of 701.
The proportion of suspects pleading guilty pre-trial or at the first crown court hearing has fallen from 71 per cent in 2019 – when the backlog was at its lowest – to 48 per cent in the year to September.
Bar Council chair Sam Townend KC said the fall in guilty pleas suggests an increasing trend of criminals trying to manipulate the justice system to avoid conviction and imprisonment.
“Young criminal men, who should be pleading guilty at an early stage, become more aware that their day of reckoning is getting pushed back further and further and, because of the high rate of ineffective trials, perhaps may never come at all,” he told The Independent.
“Victims and witnesses are becoming ever more disillusioned or simply give up. My concern is of a complete collapse in public confidence in the system.”
The president of the courts system has also cited fewer people pleading guilty as a key driver of the backlogs.
“That may be a vicious circle,” the lady chief justice Baroness Carr told MPs. “It might be because of delays, so people decide they are going to plead not guilty and see what happens down the line.”
The record 12,000 serious sexual offence cases stuck in the backlog could also be skewing the guilty plea rate, with defendants typically pleading not guilty to such charges given their damaging nature, the Criminal Bar Association said.
Barrister Rebecca Upton said prosecutors often fail to provide evidence to lawyers the recommended week in advance of a defendant’s pre-trial plea hearing, potentially leading suspects to believe they have a better chance of acquittal.
Victims’ commissioner Baroness Helen Newlove said the delays were unacceptable
“An effective criminal justice system means that perpetrators plead guilty early for a discounted sentence and to start the process of rehabilitation,” added Mr Townend. “This stops victims and witnesses having to go through the harrowing experience of reliving the crime when giving evidence and it also saves the taxpayer the costs of trial and preparation.”
The data also showed that the number of robbery cases waiting years for a verdict shot up from just two to 200 over the same period, while those involving violent crimes rose from 31 to 1,357, having both hit record highs last year.
Victims’ commissioner Baroness Newlove said the data uncovered by The Independent “illustrates the stark reality of chronic and unacceptable delay in our justice system”.
“Three years is simply too long for anyone to have to wait for justice; no victim should be expected to put their life on hold for an indefinite period,” Baroness Newlove said. “Many will conclude they are better off withdrawing from the process, leaving them with no resolution and society without justice.”
