Clause 1 - Rape
Sexual Offences Bill [Lords]
2:30 pm
Mr Humfrey Malins (Woking, Conservative)
No, but the hon. Lady poses a fair question. Rape is rape and is terribly serious. I do not seek to say that one type is heinous and one is minor. Rape is a very bad crime. I simply say that most rapes that come before the courts occur in current relationships or in past relationships that have started again, and in many such cases juries are reluctant, for reasons that I hope I have explained, to bring in a guilty verdict because of the stringent sentence that follows automatically. That is the only issue and difficulty that I point out. I do not seek at any stage to try to categorise one type of rape as class A and another as class B—we all know that rape is a horrible crime. However, I wonder whether juries might be more inclined to bring in a guilty verdict if there were slightly more scope for variations in sentencing—I put it no higher than that.
Far be it from me to say that rape does not deserve an immediate custodial sentence. In principle of course it does. However we in the legal profession know that there is very little movement in sentencing on rape cases; they almost always involve a substantial custodial sentence. I put that as a problem before the Committee. We all accept that rape is frightfully
serious and a horrible offence, and we have to accept that it is grossly under-reported and that the conviction rate for rapes within relationships are very low. That is the problem; I have no answer to it.