‘My abuser only served 11 months in jail after using Covid backlog to argue for a lesser sentence’

For free actual time breaking information alerts despatched straight to your inbox join to our breaking information emails

Sign up to our free breaking information emails

When Alice Cross met her abuser on the age of 16, her life modified in a single day.

The teenager from Norwich was groomed on-line by 34-year-old Trevor Webb, who had made her really feel particular after approaching her on-line in January 2018 – however inside weeks allegedly managed what she ate and the garments she wore.

Over the months that adopted, Webb trafficked Alice by way of a web site for intercourse staff and compelled her to carry out intercourse acts in motels for different males for his personal monetary acquire.

Webb additionally allegedly requested her to perform his “kidnap” fantasies, instructing Alice to act afraid as he drove her to distant fields to fantasise about how he would cover her physique.

His maintain over her would finally come to an finish in September 2018, when the abuse was reported to the police and Webb was arrested.

Webb pleaded responsible to two counts of arranging to facilitate the sexual exploitation of a baby and making an indecent picture of a baby at Norwich Crown Court in August 2021.

Further expenses for rape, grievous bodily hurt and excessive pornography had been later dropped, with Alice instructed by prosecutors they “wouldn’t be able to prove it was non-consensual”.

After a three-year wait to see her abuser face justice, Webb was handed a jail sentence of twenty-two months after his lawyer argued the Covid-19 court docket backlog had impacted his psychological well being.

As it took over three years for the case to come to court docket due to the prolonged investigation and studies required, Webb’s lawyer argued that he had been signed off for work as a results of the stress of not figuring out his destiny.

“I was sitting on my sofa with my mum listening to the sentencing through an audio link and I genuinely just burst into tears,” Alice instructed The Independent in regards to the day he was jailed in December 2021.

“I was crying and sobbing for a really long time. It was not something anyone had prepared me for, we were prepared for it to be years. It was very shocking to say the least.”

Within 11 months, Webb was launched from jail, Norfolk Police confirmed. As he served lower than a yr behind bars, he was not eligible for any rehabilitation requirement programmes and has been re-released into the group with little intervention.

Yet the trauma he subjected Alice to has been life-changing. Now aged 23, Alice has been identified with complicated post-traumatic stress dysfunction and a neurological situation and says she has struggled to preserve a job.

Alice, who obtained assist from the charity Imara and now works there to assist different victims of sexual abuse, mentioned she was appalled when his lawyer efficiently argued that Webb “suffered” as a results of not figuring out his destiny due to pandemic backlogs.

“I think there should be a mandatory minimum sentence for crimes like that and obviously Covid is gone now but it should never have been a mitigating factor,” Alice mentioned. “Covid has nothing to do with the victim and nothing to do with the offender’s crimes.

“There is no excuse on this earth that would explain why he only got 11 months in prison after what he did to me, which altered my entire life and left me with lifelong injuries both mentally and physically.”

For circumstances of this nature and particularly these involving victims of Alice’s age, defendants may be imprisoned for up to seven years in accordance to sentencing pointers.

During the pandemic in June 2020, steering from the chairman of the Sentencing Council, Lord Justice Holroyde, mentioned that courts should “bear in mind the practical realities of the effects of the current health emergency”.

He added that courts ought to think about mitigating elements and think about that the affect of rapid imprisonment can be “particularly heavy” for sure teams of offenders.

Alice’s story comes as victims of rape and sexual offences (RASSO) face report ready instances due to underfunding and backlogs in the legal justice system.

Prior to the pandemic, the variety of circumstances of this nature awaiting trial had reached 3,606. Ministry of Justice figures from July to September 2023 present that determine has elevated to 9,792 circumstances, and has elevated by 23 per cent in simply the final yr.

The legal justice system is grappling with an general backlog of virtually 67,000 excellent circumstances, in addition to a jail inhabitants at breaking level.

In November, victims’ commissioner Claire Waxman instructed the London Assembly that some rape circumstances had been ready for greater than six years to attain trial, inflicting a variety of victims to withdraw from proceedings. One defence lawyer instructed The Independent that he had just lately obtained a trial date for the latter finish of 2026, regardless of the alleged rapist being charged in 2022.

John Riley, who each prosecutes and defends RASSO circumstances, mentioned: “In terms of referring to Covid or any reason as to why a case has been delayed, and relying on that as a basis of mitigation – well, delay works in both directions. It can be a source of trauma for the defendant.

“Obviously the ideal is that cases are dealt with as quickly as they possibly can be, but there is a great input of work and review to make sure everything is in place before you take a case to trial. Because of the difficulties with regards to funding and resourcing, you’ll inevitably find you get problems up to the trial date.”

Sarah Berry-Valentine, a spokesperson for the charity Refuge mentioned: “This is just another example of how the court system is used against victims and survivors, another example of the victim-blaming narrative that we know all too well at Refuge.

“I wish I could say this is an anomaly and we don’t hear of this happening, but the Covid backlogs has been a huge issue, not just with defence lawyers using that particular mitigation, which is horrific, but most importantly underplaying and undermining the impact on survivors in a more general sense.

“We really can’t underestimate the impact and the toll the justice system currently has on the emotional and physical wellbeing of survivors. We’ve seen cases dropped due to wait times, survivors feeling forced out from being able to access the justice that they deserve to rebuild their lives.

“It’s familiar to see cases held up for years due to these backlogs, and in 2024 we really need ask why the pandemic backlogs haven’t been completely and fully addressed and why this excuse is still being used. There are wider issues ongoing in the legal system and it’s a huge issue for survivors who are seeking justice.”