Tuesday 5 July 2011

Change is needed in child sexual exploitation cases

During the first Budget I lobbied the Chancellor to stop the 10% discount on council tax for second home owners and allow this money to be spent on building geniuinely affordable homes for people to rent or buy. I am pleased that Cornwall Council has carried out an analysis of tax records that has revealed there are an estimated 13,600 second homes in the county, five per cent of the total housing stock.

The highest densities were found in coastal areas including on the Roseland peninsula. Last week I was delighted to be invited by residents of the new homes for local people in Gerrans. This is a much needed development of social rented, shared equity and owner occupied homes for people with strong connections to the parish. It is just what we need in villages and towns around this constituency.

I welcome the motion at the next full council meeting of Cornwall Council to abolish the 10% council tax discount given to second home owners and will be following this up with a meeting with George Osborne MP Chancellor of the Exchequer  next week. The estimated £2 million of lost council tax each year, along with the Coalition Government’s “New Homes Bonus” could be used to build really affordable homes for local people to rent or part-buy.

This year Cornwall Council has received nearly £2 million “New Homes Bonus” for 1,939 new homes, including those that were empty and have been brought back into use in 2009 and 2010.  Over six years, for the same homes Cornwall Council will receive just under £12million. Every new home built will come with a “New Homes Bonus”. So, these substantial sums of money, together could make a real difference to many people who are currently in dire need of a decent home.

Every week constituents contact me with a range of housing problems and I appreciate the urgency of starting to sort-out this problem – a legacy of a decade of not building enough homes that are genuinely affordable for local people of all ages.

During the debate on the Criminal Justice Bill, I was pleased to have highlighted the need for effective sentences for perpetrators of child sexual exploitation. The Government is taking real action to raise awareness and prevent the crimes that include on-line grooming and rape of children, but I still think much more needs to be done. Sentences need to be much longer and the treatment of children by some courts, has to change.

As with all other crimes, to secure succesful prosecutions, witnesses have to be prepared to come forward and give evidence and have it cross examined in court. Unless witnesses, thier families and carers believe that in the process of ‘going to court’ that they will be fairly treated they won’t come forward.

My research has shown that changes must be made. Here are two real cases that demonstrate why the changes are needed.

The first is the experience of a girl who was repeatedly sexually abused. She was forced to give evidence for eight days in court, was cross-examined by a team of nine defence lawyers. On one occasion by five in a row, working as a team to try and undermine her evidence. All but one of the barristers were men and dressed in wigs and gowns represented in her mind the powerful men in authority who had abused her. While respect for the human rights of the defendent was shown by the court, there was no understanding of how the crimes perpetrated against her had left her as a vulnerable and very understandably terrified witness. She was physically sick every day and became so traumatised by the experience that she ran away from home during the case. Very sadly the case was dropped.

The second case is of a girl who was shown into the witness box when the screens that had been promised to her had been forgotten. Faced with seeing the men who had sexually abused her, she understandably became hysterical. As such she was deamed unfit to give evidence and again the case was dropped.

I want to improve the experience of young people in our courts and the cross examination of children and made some simple but effective recommendations that I will be following-up with the Minstry of Justice.

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