Lawyers who bully girls giving evidence in sex abuse cases were condemned today.
Labour’s shadow justice secretary Sadiq Khan called for an end to “victims being treated like criminals”.
“Does it promote confidence when a 13 year old victim of sexual abuse is called a ‘sexual predator’?” he demanded. “Bad enough for a Crown Prosecution Service lawyer, but a disgrace when a judge says it too.”
Tooting MP Mr Khan, a lawyer, pledged to introduce a "victims' law" to strengthen the rights of victims and witnesses.
Mr Khan listed recent cases including the treatment of the parents of murdered Milly Dowler in court.
“Does putting Milly’s parents through mental torture, as Milly’s sister described it, lead to confidence in the system?” he asked.
“Or when the victims of vile sexual grooming are told by the authorities that it’s a lifestyle choice?”
Mocking government claims to have restored confidence to the system, he went on: “And did the rape victims who, on the 30 occasions last year reported the crime, feel confident when their rapist got away with just a caution?
“Does it inspire confidence in the victim of a violent assault who does everything possible to secure a conviction? And then finds out the attacker is freed from jail by bumping into them in the local supermarket?”
Mr Khan also condemned the Government's "reckless" plans to privatise the probation service and hand over supervision of offenders to private firms such as G4S and Serco.
The Ministry of Justice is pushing through reforms aimed at giving victims a stronger voice in the criminal justice system, including improving the Victims' Code, introducing pre-sentence restorative justice and tackling reoffending.
Other measures will see young and vulnerable victims of crime offered the chance to pre-record evidence for criminal trials in a bid to protect them from the trauma of appearing in court.
