Delay Is Not a Reason to Reduce Rights
A survivor’s open letter urging government not to use court delays to justify removing the right to a jury
By Vicki
As debate grows around limiting jury trials, Vicki offers a vital perspective from lived experience. Her open letter sets out clearly why her case must not be used to justify removing the right to be tried by a jury.
Open letter to Lammy
Vicki 03-12-25
Dear Mr Lammy,
My historical sexual offences case has been used as an example in the media relating to court delays because it took 5 years and 8 months from reporting to sentencing. I wanted to reach out to you to explain why I think the government is making a huge mistake by reducing the threshold for jury trials.
Firstly, I oppose this decision because despite experiencing the worst of the delays in the justice system, I believe in fairness in the justice system. As much as the trauma associated with my experience was catastrophic, I do not want this to be a reason to justify defendants losing the right to be tried by their peers.
The one thing that would have made my experience more comfortable would have been access to support services. Currently the government funding for this is woeful. I couldn't access an ISVA for the entirety of the police investigation and court process. This meant that I had to navigate the entire process myself and advocate for myself. This included requesting a right to review to writing to crown court judges to reconsider lengthy delays and the impact they were having on my life and health.
You cannot improve the justice system by cutting costs, you cannot say that the justice system is fair when it’s not fair to remove the right to be tried by a jury!
Judges are overstretched as it is. If their workload is increased in this way you risk creating a space for burnout. The thing I learned about judges during my court process was that judges are incredible people and I feel they work hard enough.
I don’t want to feel responsible by proxy for anyone losing their right to a jury trial. My experience shouldn’t be used to dilute justice. I also know that one thing that gave me huge comfort was that 12 people unanimously agreed that my abuser was guilty. This shouldn’t be underestimated.
Please fund the justice system and prison service properly and don't use cases like mine to justify removing people’s rights. My human rights were arguably breached by the way my case progressed through the courts and that I have to live with. I don’t want to be the cause of the same harm on others.
If you’d ever like a conversation about what victims like me would rather see I would really like to have a constructive conversation with someone from the MoJ.
Kind regards,
Vicki Crawford
