After collapse of two trials because of late disclosure, Scotland Yard says review of ongoing cases could run into hundreds

This article is more than 2 years old

This article is more than 2 years old

Scotland Yard has rejected accusations that systemic failures have led to officers breaking rules aimed at ensuring trials are fair, after the collapse of two rape cases in a week.

Britain’s largest force was reviewing every rape and sexual abuse case in which someone was charged, which could run into the hundreds, Cdr Richard Smith said.

The full review was announced on Tuesday evening after it emerged that two cases were dropped after evidence undermining the police and prosecution case was only revealed to defence lawyers late in the day.

Student Liam Allan was cleared last week of multiple counts of rape, and Isaac Itiary, who was charged with raping a child, walked free on Tuesday.

Smith, who oversees rape investigations for the Metropolitan police, told the Guardian the force was investigating about 30 rape and sexual abuse cases that were about to go to court, and potentially hundreds of others in which someone has been charged.



“We are reviewing all our current cases, prioritising those about to go to court,” as well as cases where “someone has been charged and we are progressing through to prosecution”, Smith said.

He said the Met had not engaged in the systemic breaking of a key rule meant to ensure a fair trial, known as disclosure. Police and prosecutors who bring the case are supposed to share material they have with the defence team if it can help the suspect’s case.

“I don’t think we have a systemic issue around disclosure failures,” said Smith, who added he did not believe those already convicted in Met sexual assault and rape cases would have grounds for appeal.

He said the Met drew a distinction between the two cases that collapsed this week.



In the Allan case “we feel something has gone badly wrong there,” Smith said. But in the Itiary case, the Met believed the disclosure system worked as it should.

Itiary was charged in July, and on 15 December his defence filed their formal statement of their case. Unused material gathered by police from the complainant’s phone was re-examined and handed to the defence on 17 December. It undermined the prosecution case and on 19 December, the Crown Prosecution Service decided to offer no evidence.

Smith said: “Once the defence case statement was received, the officer in the case reviewed the unused material, and identified material he felt had become relevant. It was revealed to the CPS, who told the defence.”



He said the review would ask whether disclosure could have happened any sooner.

The justice minister Dominic Raab argued that the “basic principle of British justice” was at stake.

“The proper disclosure obligations in these two cases have not been discharged, and that is deeply worrying,” he told BBC Radio 5 Live.

“What we need to know now is quite how widespread that is and why.

“This is not a new thing. It should be made easy by technology. It’s a very basic thing why it’s not happening. I do think the CPS and the police do need to have a pretty hard long look in the mirror about this.”

The prime minister’s spokesman said: “The two cases which came to light over the past week have obviously raised some serious issues which need to be looked at in greater detail.

“The Met is carrying out work and it’s important we don’t seek to prejudge those reviews.”

The spokesman said the attorney general last week ordered a review to look at disclosure processes – including codes of practice, guidelines and legislation relating to sexual offences and other types of crime. It is expected to report back in 2018.

The National Police Chiefs’ Council said it was addressing recommendations that identified the need to improve disclosure. “We are working with the College of Policing and Crown Prosecution Service to resolve the issues raised,” a spokesperson said.

“As part of this we will consider the findings of the Metropolitan police’s review of recent cases of disclosure and the impact of the amount of digital material officers now need to analyse, especially in fraud and sex offence cases.”

Smith said detectives were struggling to cope with the large increase in digital material they had to analyse in cases, a situation no one had imagined 20 years ago when disclosure laws were made.



“There is a significant challenge around managing disclosure in a digital age,” he said.



Angela Rafferty QC, the chair of the Criminal Bar Association, suggested “unconscious bias” stopped the police and the CPS “impartially and thoroughly investigating and scrutinising complaints in sexual offence cases”.

“It should be remembered that it is not the job of the police or CPS to judge the truthfulness or otherwise of any allegation made,” she said.

“The deluge of sexual allegations in the system is well known. If the criminal justice system is to cope properly then funding must be found to ensure that there are proper investigations, a proper filtering system for cases that have no merit and a proper approach by the police and CPS to disclosure issues.”

• This article was amended on 21 December 2017 to correct the spelling of Liam Allan’s surname.