Rape trials still hit by 'she asked for it' culture

Prosecution of rape in this country is being hampered by hardened cultural attitudes that assume victims of sexual assault lead men on, the Director of Public Prosecutions said yesterday.

Sir David Calvert-Smith QC urged the Crown Prosecution Service and the Government to tackle this misheld belief so that more rapists could be brought to trial.

Yesterday he joined the Solicitor General, Harriet Harman QC, in trying to combat such views by consulting the public, including rape victims, on how to improve investigation and prosecution of rape.

He criticised the "she asked for it" attitude, saying: "Thirty years ago, I heard practitioners saying no woman need be raped if she didn't really want to. There are still residues of that in the British consciousness. That's one of the things we are looking to break down."

Ms Harman said: "Rape is a callous and brutal crime. The justice gap between the number of reported rapes and the number of convictions shows clearly that we must do more to support rape victims."

Since 1985, reports of rape have increased by 400 per cent but convictions by only 40 per cent. Just 7.25 per cent of reported cases end in a conviction.