Court delays re-victimise rape survivors, says PCC

Rape victims are "seeing continual delays" to court proceedings in their cases, Surrey's Police and Crime Commissioner (PCC) has said.

Lisa Townsend has been answering questions from presenter James Cannon for BBC Radio Surrey's Hot Seat series.

The Conservative PCC also talked about fly-tipping, knife crime and the pending eviction of Surrey officers from subsidised housing.

Read our takeaways from the interview on the show below.

"I think that we are incredibly fortunate in the United Kingdom to have the system that we have, but I do see the ways in which it, in some ways, re-victimises people."

Townsend gave the example of "those who have been through rape and who are seeing continual delays to their cases".

The Crown Court backlog has been at a record high since early 2023, according to the government.

"The Environment Agency have what we would think of as policing and enforcement powers in this area as well and I don't think they're sufficiently used."

The PCC called for the public to have "one simple way of reporting" fly-tipping, where complaints could be picked up by multiple agencies.

"I think this is one of the areas where the system is doing a disservice to our residents and I think we could be an awful lot better at it," she said.

The Environment Agency said it was increasing drone flights to track fly-tippers and "recruiting more specialist staff to pull apart organised crime gangs".

"We've traditionally got incredibly low levels of knife crime but every young person, every family that is affected by knife crime is of course one too many."

Townsend said she thought "there is always more that we can do" and working with schools was "a really, really important part of doing that".

The PCC was questioned after 15-year-old Luis Guembes was stabbed to death in Stoke Park, Guildford in January.

"On a Saturday night, are we really going to get officers in Guildford and Woking and Redhill? I don't think we are."

Townsend expressed concern that a South East chief constable, rather than a Surrey chief, would prioritise areas outside the county.

Home Secretary Shabana Mahmood announced reforms in January to what she called a "broken" policing model, which could see the number of local forces reduced by about two-thirds.

"We apply [criteria] consistently across the board to everybody and I think it's really important."

The PCC confirmed that no-fault evictions of families in subsidised housing owned by her office would go ahead to make way for early career police staff.

The "majority of our police officers and staff can't afford to live in the county in which they are employed", Townsend said, adding that she wanted to build more homes for officers.

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