THE past year has seen a “considerable improvement” by the Wessex Crown Prosecution Service (CPS) in the number of successful prosecutions across all three major strands of crime that fall under its violence against women and girls umbrella.

Over the last 12 months, CPS Wessex, which covers Hampshire, has successfully convicted 72.3 per cent of rape cases, 84.1 per cent of domestic abuse cases and 84.8 per cent of serious sexual offences crimes, achieving the highest conviction rates nationally for a CPS area.

Sophie Stevens, head of the complex casework and rape and serious sexual offences unit for CPS Wessex, said: “We have worked tirelessly with our specialist prosecutors to improve their expertise by providing bespoke enhanced training, as well as working with our management team to better support all staff by providing them with the skills to deal with these difficult cases.”

Nicola Haywood, deputy chief crown prosecutor of CPS Wessex, added: “In line with the CPS 2020 objectives, we have continued to deliver justice for victims and witnesses by improving the quality of our casework, through listening to the public, as well as our violence against women and girls scrutiny panel, which consists of members of the public who scrutinise finalised cases.

“We have worked with our partners such as our three police forces, Her Majesty’s Court and Tribunal Service, Probation Service and local criminal justice boards across all three counties. This clearly demonstrates our commitment to championing the rights of victims and witnesses.”