Hundreds of suspected criminals, including violent thugs and sex offenders, have escaped justice in London due to police blunders after arrest.
At least 568 suspects have been released without charge in the capital in the past five years after lawyers found police had breached the Police and Criminal Evidence Act (Pace).
Mistakes include errors with paper work, a failure to read offenders their rights, or problems with the way interviews were conducted. The figure includes 155 alleged violent criminals and eight potential sex offenders since 2008.
However, prosecution sources say the number is a tiny faction of the total 792,033 cases brought in London in the last five years. They say most of the cases in question involve less serious offences which were dropped at magistrates’ courts. They point out that there were just two failed prosecutions over sex offences because of breaches of Pace in the capital last year.
The figures were obtained after a Freedom of Information request by the Standard to the Crown Prosecution Service. Nationwide, more than 1,300 suspected criminals escaped justice because of police Pace errors, out of a total of more than 4.5 million cases.
These included 262 suspected violent criminals and 21 sex offenders, three of whom were suspected rapists and one of whom was accused of sexually abusing a boy.
Javed Khan, chief executive of charity Victim Support, said: “Although these are relatively small figures, they risk damaging public confidence in the criminal justice system. People charged with crimes must be properly put before the courts, not allowed to walk free because of police errors.”
A Metropolitan police spokesman said: “We are committed to ensuring we provide the best possible service to victims of crime, and that includes bringing offenders to justice. All of our officers are trained during their probationary period on the correct application of Pace. Refreshers are provided when changes are introduced.
“Any serious breach of Pace by an officer would be highlighted to the Met by the CPS so that it could be investigated. Any persistent trends are monitored and fed into the Met’s organisational learning team to ensure that training is adapted as necessary.
“We are working with the CPS to ensure that we do all we can to improve upon the percentage of cases discontinued due to a breach of Pace.”
Nick de Bois, Tory MP for Enfield North, a member of the Commons justice committee, said: “These figures are shocking and I hope an investigation into the cases in question takes place, to see if lessons can be learned so we can stop this happening in future.”
