Scrapping juries in rape trials would be a mistake

Juries, and the right to a fair trial, are under threat from the left. The latest attack came from Ann Coffey, the Labour MP for Stockport, who believes that we should consider abolishing juries in rape cases. A few months ago, the tax barrister Jolyon Maugham QC – no friend of the current Labour leadership, but something of a weather vane for more moderate left-wing thinking – floated the same idea.

Coffey’s argument is that ‘juries view evidence through the lens of prevailing stereotypes shared with the wider community.’ As a result, she says, ‘the most common cause of unsuccessful prosecutions in rape prosecutions is jury acquittal’. Her suggestions to resolve this include the idea that jurors in rape cases should be ‘vetted for preconceived bias.’ Another is that they should be abolished altogether in rape cases.

It is now almost an article of faith among some that whenever anyone is acquitted of a sexual offence, is is these prevailing stereotypes and ‘rape myths’ which are to blame.