Northumbria's Police and Crime Commissioner is trying out a new idea to improve rape trials

Rape trials are, notoriously, one of the areas in which the justice system can truly fail victims. Problems presenting evidence, the persistence of rape myths, confusion over the nature of consent and the intense pressure victims can be placed under when testifying in court all contribute to this. This in turn means that victims are less likely to report rape than other crimes because they don’t have faith in the system. The recent Ched Evans case highlights just how much victims of rape and other sexual offences can be put through when they are brave enough to seek justice: the victim in that case has had to change her name and move house five times after being identified and harassed by internet trolls.

It's not surprising, then, that according to studies in the US and UK, at least 80 per cent of rapes go unreported. About two-thirds of those that are taken to the police do not make it to court. And of those that do, the conviction rate in the UK is just 60 per cent, compared to around 80 per cent for Crown Court cases overall.

There has been report after report on the subject and, although they are vital in highlighting the extent of the problem, they often don’t achieve much else—even when reports are translated into guideline changes, there can be a huge gap between guidelines and practice.

Should we be taking a more direct approach? In a project that began this month, Northumbria Police and Crime Commissioner Vera Baird has established a team of volunteers with academic or professional expertise in the area to observe rape cases being tried in Newcastle Crown Court; although time consuming and dependant on volunteers, the aim is that they should watch every rape trial taking place at the court over the next six months. The team will report back on issues such as the use of rape myths and stereotypes during the trial, and whether the victim is receiving adequate support in court.

The project to install a Court Observers Panel is "completely unique," Baird tells me. The plan is that each trial should be watched by someone with expertise in law (including Baird herself), to identify the legal issues, and someone from the rape victims sector, such as charities and refuges, who will pick up on issues from the victim's point of view. Once the reports are written they will be sent to the judge who tried the case so that they can take on board any problems that were observed in how it was conducted.

In addition, all the reports will be fed back to a new Rape Scrutiny Panel. The panel, which meets for the first time today, will pull everything together to look more widely at how rape cases are handled in the criminal justice system, in order to identify trends, best practice and areas for improvement. "We'll draw out what we think are the lessons," says Baird, and then distribute the reports as widely as possible.

"We have nothing in terms of any [legal] power," she says, "we can only use our voices." But the Court Observers Panel could be important. If a report of a sexual offence does make it to court, the trial itself can be deeply flawed and, as Baird points out, there is usually nobody around to see it. Occasionally they get picked up by reports or by the media and cause an outcry—such as the case earlier this month in which a judge claimed a 16-year-old girl had "groomed" her 44-year-old teacher or, in August 2013, when a barrister acting on behalf of the Crown Prosecution Service described a 13-year-old sex abuse victim as “predatory”—but for the most part the flaws will go unnoticed and unrectified. Ensuring that those with a high awareness of these problems are present at a trial and in contact with the judge afterwards could be a huge help not only in monitoring trends but also in directly raising awareness among the judges involved, who can learn from the experience and (hopefully) take appropriate action to rectify the problems in future cases.

It's a simple enough idea, and though the role is demanding of the volunteers involved, they give their time freely: if successful, says Baird, there's no reason why the scheme couldn't be rolled out across other parts of the country.