Court delays: 'Even though I wasn't the criminal, I felt like I was serving the sentence mentally'

Victims of crime and defendants are facing longer waits for justice than ever before.

Lawyers and victims have spoken out about the problem, which has been called "unfair" for both the accused and victims.

Latest figures released by the Ministry of Justice show the average length of time between a crime being committed and the conclusion of a case was 408 days between April and June, nearly twice what it was for the same period in 2020. 

Roxy Freebury is a victim of domestic violence and had to wait seven months for her case to come to court.

"Even though I wasn't the criminal, I felt like I was serving the sentence mentally because it hangs over your head.

"You struggle to move forward with anything because you're constantly thinking 'what are they going to say in court?' 'are they going to believe what I've said?' 'what evidence is being put there?'"

Scott Bowen is a criminal solicitor and claims he has a client who's been waiting for nearly 3 years for his day in court. 

He said, "it's not justice to victims, it's not justice to those who are accused of crimes, those that want to clear their names and then have to wait two or three years to do that.

"It's also not fair for those who are victims of crime."

The Ministry of Justice says outstanding case levels are stabilising and that it's invested almost half a billion pounds to tackle back logs.

But many in criminal justice say the problems pre-date the pandemic.

Criminal barrister, Andrew Taylor, said, "I was sick of hearing from hard working and committed civil servants 'we'd like to have more cases bust the government won't give us the judges, they won't give us the sitting days' and that's the reason that those people were put under pressure.

"This is not fair. It used to be said many years ago that justice delayed is justice denied. We don't hear that from the government these days because, I'm afraid, they are responsible for this delay."

Ministry of Justice statement

A Ministry of Justice spokesperson said, "Throughout the pandemic, courts have prioritised urgent cases where there is a risk to the public, such as sexual violence, and that will continue as the system recovers and more rape prosecutions are brought.

"We recently secured the largest funding increase in more than a decade - including half a billion pounds to tackle the impact of the pandemic and reduce court backlogs."