A judge has told a jury about the Crown court backlog after jurors asked him why the rape case they were sitting on had taken four years to come to trial.
The jury was about to begin deliberating at Reading Crown Court (pictured above) on the trial of a 34-year-old man accused of sexually and physically abusing his 12-year-old step-daughter.
Before hearing Mr Recorder J Benson’s legal directions on Wednesday, jurors passed up a note asking why the case, which involved allegations being made to the police in April 2021, had taken so long to reach court.
The charges related to crimes allegedly committed between 2017 and 2021, when the complainant would have been as young as eight.
In discussions with counsel while the jury was absent, the judge agreed to be up-front about the problems facing criminal trials across the country.
After the jury was called back in, Benson told the court: ‘It is through no fault of either the complainant or any prosecution witnesses or the defendant that the case has taken so long to be heard. The answer I am afraid, I am sure you will all have heard about the Crown court backlogs. I am afraid that is the reason.
‘It is of no fault of the parties, it is just the way that things are at the moment and obviously courts have to decide, depending on various factors, which cases get priority and which do not. It is what it is. The important thing to know is, it is through no fault of any of the parties.’
The court heard that the complainant in the case had been able to give evidence in a pre-recorded way under section 28 of the Youth Justice and Criminal Evidence Act, 1999.
After a few hours of deliberations, the jury convicted the defendant of ill-treatment of a person under 16, two counts of sexual assault of a child under 13 and one count of rape of a child under 13.
The defendant was remanded into custody ahead of a sentencing date to be fixed.
