Between January 2015 and June 2016 the Court Observers Panel attended and scrutinised 30 rape cases which took place at Newcastle Crown Court.

The purpose of panel members attending was to observe the rape trials, scrutinise how they were held, questions asked of the witness and that processes were undertaken correctly with the objective to increase the rape conviction rate.

The culmination of this work was the report “Seeing is Believing” which was published in 2017 and provides the outcomes of these observations.

To read the full report please click here.

Following the positive impact of the work of the Court Observers Panel in relation to Rape Trials. In 2018, the North of England Soroptimists and members of the Rape Scrutiny panel scrutinised the work of Specialist Domestic Violence Courts and whether they should do more to stop defendants ‘gaming the system’, improve the courts understanding of coercive control and whether more advocates are needed in courts to help victims.

To read this report click here

• Special Domestic Violence Courts – How special are they?
• Seeing is Believing