wait years to come forwards over fears they won’t be believed or will be blamed themselves.
‘Victims and survivors are being coerced into consenting to use of their personal data with the threat that if they do not give access to it, it will negatively impact their case,’told Grazia. ‘Rather than specifying data that is relevant to the case, police are taking shortcuts – asking for blanket consent to everything and then picking and choosing what might be relevant.'
According to the report by the information commissioner John Edwards, the police’s intrusive practices make it unsurprising that many victims choose to withdraw from the legal process. Currently,‘It has never made any sense to me why victims of rape and sexual assault are told to hand over the contents of their mobile phone, social media etc as a “pre-condition” to access justice,’ wrote one woman on Twitter. ‘It’s way past time that victims are treated with respect and not as suspects.
The Attorney General subsequently determined last week that victims’ phones should be given back to them within 24 hours, and the Home Office has assigned £5million to new technology to help police officers abide by this target.Radio 4’s Today programme