Rape trial collapse and Worboys fury By BBC News

Staff Published duration 20 January 2018

image copyright Shutterstock

Many of Saturday's papers are troubled by the government's decision not to challenge the release of Jon Worboys.

The Daily Express says critics see it as a "further slap in the face" for Worboys' many victims.

The Sun , in its editorial, accuses the justice secretary, David Gauke, of "bottling out" of a fight. It acknowledges his lawyers told him that challenging the Parole Board's decision might fail. "So what?" the Sun asks, arguing "there are worse uses of public money."

The Daily Telegraph detects a broader problem. The police, Crown Prosecution Service and prisons are all "a mess" it says. "How did it come to this point?" it asks, concluding that the Conservatives are "jeopardising their reputation as the party of law and order."

The Times follows up the story of the prosecution of an Oxford student being abandoned after he had spent two years on bail, and just before his trial was due to start.

It says the former lord chief justice, Lord Judge, has warned that rapists will now be more likely to get away with their crimes, because the case has undermined public confidence in the justice system.

Lord Judge believes juries could be deterred from convicting in future sexual assault trials, the paper says, because they would not have faith in evidence placed before the court,

image copyright Getty Images

The fall-out from the collapse of the construction firm, Carillion, continues to generate headlines.

The Guardian says the British Medical Association has demanded answers about the future of two major hospitals that Carillion was building - one in Birmingham, the other in Liverpool - amid concerns they will be delayed.

The Financial Times , meanwhile, reports that private equity groups and buyout firms are "circling", hoping to cherry-pick Carillion's best assets.

If they manage to do so at cut-rate prices, it could add to the political difficulties confronting the government, the FT says.

Those political difficulties are laid bare in the Daily Mail's leader column. It demands a public inquiry to provide "urgent answers" to the "glaring questions" that have been thrown up. Otherwise, it concludes, the government's credibility could be "gravely undermined."

image copyright Getty Images

Another sector where cut-price deals are on offer is the funeral industry.

A price war has broken out, the Guardian reports , forcing one of the UK's biggest undertakers, Dignity, to slash the cost of its cheapest funeral by 25%.

It seems people have become more willing to haggle.