Annie, a woman from southern England, is suing the Crown Prosecution Service (CPS) after the trial of her stepfather, whom she reported for alleged childhood abuse, ended with not guilty verdicts and a hung jury. Her lawyers at the Centre for Women's Justice (CWJ) argue that the prosecution was so badly executed it breached her human rights.
Background of the Allegations
Annie reported her stepfather to police in 2017 after learning he was babysitting young extended family members. She had previously disclosed the alleged abuse at age 18, but no action was taken. The case went to trial in 2021 after multiple abandoned court dates.
One of Annie's key complaints is that prosecutors did not apply to introduce bad character evidence about her stepfather. All references to domestic abuse, cruelty, and neglect she alleged she suffered as a child were edited out of her police interview. A photograph showing her mother's injuries after an assault by the stepfather was not shown to the jury, and a solicitor's letter mentioning a violent assault on another family member was not referred to. Reports of police speaking to him about domestic abuse allegations were also not introduced.
Impact on the Trial
Annie said she could not put her allegations into context. “How can I not talk about the fact that these enormous fights are going on?” she said. “We walk on eggshells, it’s more like broken glass, all of our lives since they got married.” She described a loaded shotgun behind the larder door, saying, “You’re petrified that if you take a step wrong, that gun is going to come out.”
A 2025 inspection report into adult rape cases found that in fewer than two in 10 cases where bad character evidence was relevant did prosecutors address how it could have strengthened the case.
Prosecution Failures
Before the trial, Annie had to watch her three-and-a-half-hour achieving best evidence (ABE) interview multiple times, only for court dates to be cancelled at short notice. When she finally met her CPS-allocated barrister, he said, “I’m sick of your face, to be honest,” because he had watched her ABE so many times. “I just felt like crumbling,” Annie said. One trial was abandoned after the wrong evidence was shown to the jury.
The police wrote a letter apologizing that the judge was inconvenienced, but Annie said, “I didn’t get anybody writing to me saying: ‘I’m really sorry you had to do that,’ but the judge got a written apology.”
Legal Actions and CPS Admission
After the trial, Annie filed a complaint with the CPS, which admitted they had made a legal error by not adducing bad character evidence. Armed with this admission, she took her case to the CWJ, which issued a claim against the CPS. Kate Ellis, a CWJ solicitor, said, “In Annie’s case there appear to have been so many bases on which the CPS could have applied to introduce the bad character evidence. This is why, we think, the CPS has admitted to getting the law wrong, but that admission is, sadly, too little too late.”
Annie said, “I’m still having to fight to be heard. I haven’t received justice. But I do see an end is in sight, and I do hope that something good will come out of this, so that other women will be listened to, and their abuse will be listened to in its entirety.”
A CPS spokesperson said: “Due to live civil litigation proceedings, we are unable to comment on the specifics of this case. More broadly, we recognise the profound impact that rape and serious sexual offences can have on victims, and are committed to continuous learning to strengthen consistency across the CPS.”
