Soldiers and other Armed Forces personnel accused of rape should no longer be tried in military courts because of “shockingly low” prosecution rates, the Victims’ Commissioner has told the Defence Secretary.
In a letter to Ben Wallace, Dame Vera Baird warned that the integrity of the military was at risk unless it ended a culture of protecting its own by giving victims of sexual assaults access to “independent justice” in civilian courts.
She cited figures showing that conviction rates in civilian courts for rape were five times those of military courts, at 50 per cent versus 10 per cent in the five years up to 2019.
As these things work a low conviction rate implies a high prosecution rate and vice versa.
Sigh.
Vera Baird has a long history of going unarmed into a battle of wits.
I’d agree with your argument Tim. But the real reason I prefer the troops to be tried by a military court is that at least they should have some idea of the soldier’s problems.
I really don’t like the idea of a pack of woke wankers pouncing on the poor blokes. I’m thinking of some blokes who we sent to Afghanistan who have been accused of war crimes.
When I think of their accusers, my mind always turns to Crassus’s lining the roads with the corpses of the crucified.
Civil courts seem to have decided that in “he said/she said” cases, “she said” wins. Good enough reason not to use them.
Whatever the conviction rates, etc., Don’t put your daughter in the Army, Mrs. Worthington…
Vera Baird is a menace to society.
Women responsible for dog-fouling in London mainline stations should be tried by military courts.
I thought the integrity of the military was lost when that sailor cried because the enemy took away his iPod…
If there’s a lower conviction rate it’s because there’s a lower accused-action-actually-happened rate.
Alternatively, if it is in the purview of the courts martial, that presumably means that it is an internal matter – i.e. between two soldiers. So this is not stranger rape, so is going to be vastly harder to convict.
Just my hypothesis.
Vera Baird is a Labour apparatchik, booted out of her seat (Redcar) by the fall of the red wall and magically appointed ‘Victims Commissioner’. Why does a nominally Conservative government allow this to happen? (Rhetorical question.)