Clause 2 - Anonymity of defendant in rape etc. cases
Sexual Offences Bill [Lords]
4:15 pm
Mr Dominic Grieve (Beaconsfield, Conservative)
That, indeed, is what I recollect. My only reason for not being specific was that I wondered whether the Act was on the statute book for some months before it was implemented.
I remember seeing rape trials taking place in my early years at the Bar in the 1980s. I certainly was not conscious that there was a great impediment to justice in granting anonymity to rape defendants—until, of course, they were convicted, when, naturally, their anonymity disappeared.
It has been suggested that there may be cases in which anonymity seriously hampers police investigations, because it prevents an opportunity for other people to come forward, as they will not have heard that the defendant is standing trial. I accept that
that may sometimes happen. That is why I also always accepted that there must be exceptions to anonymity rules when the interests of justice require it. Another example is that of a defendant who does not surrender to bail and goes on the run. It is easy to see that in those circumstances his anonymity should be forfeited for the sake of ensuring his early arrest.
I strongly feel that there are powerful arguments—and they certainly seem to have registered outside the House among the public—as to why defendants should have anonymity. There are then arguments about how long they should have anonymity for. Because of the way that the Bill has come to us from the House of Lords, we are really talking about anonymity between charge and conviction or acquittal.
There are arguments—I gather that the Home Secretary is taking an interest in the matter—that the principal mischief lies not in the trial process, but in the period prior to charge, and I do not think that that period would be covered by the Bill. Perhaps the Committee should consider that, although drafting such legislation could be difficult. I have heard it suggested that the Home Secretary wishes to come up with a formula by which the police agree not to tip off journalists about investigations of individuals suspected of sex offences.
I have no idea whether that approach would be successful or not, but I am not optimistic. I am afraid that there is a long history of the police tipping off journalists—often, I suspect, for reward. It is a scandalous situation, but one that I believe is very difficult to control. The only way to exercise such control would be to restrict publication; the reality with anonymity in any case is that there will always be people involved in the case or close to it, or relatives or neighbours, who know very well that a person is about to stand charge for a rape allegation. That certainly happened in the 1980s; anyone sitting in court would have been likely to find out. However, the absence of publicity was certainly very helpful in enabling someone who had been acquitted to rebuild his life.
While I understand that the Government are unsympathetic to the Lords amendment and wish to delete it, for my part I am broadly somewhat sympathetic to it and would like to see whether there is some way by which the spirit or intention of the clause could be retained.
There are two ways in which that could be done. The first is amendment No. 23 and the second is amendment No. 24. Amendment No. 23 would retain
''a right to anonymity, from initial accusation to conviction''—
so the anonymity would apply beyond charge—
''unless at any time between charge and conclusion of the trial a circuit judge directs otherwise.''
That would make allowance for the exceptions, which I fully acknowledge might arise, either because of a defendant's behaviour—running away, failing to surrender to bail—or because the prosecutor could go to the judge and say, ''This is a very unusual case. We are satisfied that at least four people have now
made allegations against the defendant. We believe that publicity, because of the nature of his offences, might well attract more. It is an unfortunate matter, but could we please be allowed to reveal his identity?'' I would be perfectly prepared for a judge to perform such a balancing exercise.
The second amendment, amendment No. 24, is an alternative. The intention is that it might provide—although I suspect that because of the way it is drafted it would not provide—the possibility of having anonymity between the time that the investigation commences and an allegation is made, and charge.
I look forward to hearing not only the Government's position on clause 2, but their position on anonymity generally. At the moment, the amendments have been put forward in, I hope, a conciliatory spirit and I hope that the Committee will be able to grapple with them. It is a very important topic.
If we get no joy from the Government on the issue, we may be minded to resist the deletion of clause 2, because it is an issue of great importance. However, I am also willing to listen carefully to what the Minister has to say, and to other Committee members who have arguments to the contrary. I am already well versed in such arguments; I have had an interesting e-mail correspondence with the hon. and learned Member for Redcar, which was published in somewhat truncated form in The Guardian. The arguments that she put forward are valid; I make no attack on their validity. Equally, however, I believe that there are arguments to the contrary.