New law to counter rise in date rape

David Blunkett, the Home Secretary, will next month unveil new date rape laws aimed at boosting poor conviction rates and giving greater protection to victims.

Ministers are considering closing a legal loophole which currently allows defendants to raise in court the sexual history of a rape victim who knows their attacker. Other proposals include drawing up a special "consent" checklist.

Judges would be allowed to reject defence arguments that sex was consensual in cases where the victim was drunk, unconscious or had been intimidated.

The reforms have been drawn up in response to a huge rise in the number of date rapes. The issue has been highlighted following an allegation by Ulrika Jonsson, the television celebrity, that she was a date rape victim.

Figures published by the Home Office earlier this year revealed that women are most at risk from their partners, former lovers and male acquaintances.

British Crime Survey research found that current partners are responsible for 45 per cent of rapes, compared with strangers who carry out 8 per cent. The number of rapes reported to police has more than doubled over the past 10 years but only 7.25 per cent of those reported result in a conviction.

Yesterday, the Metropolitan police confirmed that detectives from their Serious Crime Group were now investigating a rape allegation made by a 30-year-old woman against a television presenter, the same man who allegedly raped Ms Jonsson. The case relates to an incident in 1998.

A senior Home Office source said consent in rape cases had become a "huge issue" and was central to the government reforms.

The source added that the availability of DNA evidence meant that lawyers were now routinely using consent as a defence in rape cases.

"The general concern with us is to convict more guilty people, but forensic evidence has made it more difficult to secure a conviction," he said.

"In the past, there wasn't DNA evidence so the prosecution only had to prove the defendant was lying if they said they had never met the victim.

"Now they will say the victim consented to sex."

The final details of the reforms will not be ready in time for the Queen's Speech. Instead, they will be published in a new sex offences White Paper at the end of next month.

Courts in Canada already use "consent" checklists, which ensure defendants cannot undermine the integrity of their victims.

Under the new laws, the definition of rape will also be extended to include oral penetration, and new sentences will be introduced for rape depending on the severity of the offence.

However, ministers will not create a separate offence for date rape. Anti-rape campaigners have told Home Office ministers that creating a separate offence would downgrade the seriousness of date rape.

Women MPs have already been campaigning for the introduction of radical reforms to existing rape laws.

Julia Drown, MP for Swindon South, has led a debate on reform with a backbench Bill.

She said: "It's very difficult at the moment for cases to come to court and it's never going to be easy for victims to come forward, but we must bring in reforms to improve the poor conviction rate."

'My boss said we'd just have a drink'

Jonathan Thompson

It was on the first day of her first job that Kim Shannon was drugged and raped by her employer. She was just 16 years old.

Kim, who is now 18, has waived her legal right to anonymity in the hope that other young victims of drug and date rape will come forward.

Last week she described the fateful Saturday two summers ago when she began a cleaning job at a restaurant.

"The job was in Lanarkshire, and I was living in Glasgow," she said. "The boss arranged to pick me up, and said he'd take me home later."

After a full day's work with her boss and an assistant manager, Kim was looking forward to returning to her grandmother's house, where she was staying.

"We had cleared up and finished by around 6pm. But when I came back into the room, there were three mugs of vodka and Coke sitting there. The boss said that as soon as we'd had a drink, he'd take me home." She continued: "I was trying to drink slowly, but he just kept telling me to hurry up. I began to feel dizzy and felt like I was getting really drunk really fast.

"The next thing I remember, it was about 1.30am and I was back in Glasgow. I was sick and disoriented and I didn't know how I had got home."

When Kim reached for her mobile phone, she realised what had happened.

"I started looking for my mobile phone and realised that my trousers were on back to front. My friend's mum heard me crying in the street, took me in and called the police."

Six months later, on her 17th birthday, she was told by the Crown Office in Scotland that there was not enough evidence to take the two men responsible to court. Kim took an overdose of paracetamol, but was discovered in time by her mother, who rushed her to hospital.

The Crown Office later admitted they had made a mistake and the two men were jailed in September for a total of nine years.