Author Archives: Karen Kruzycka

Opinion: From out of nowhere – rape anonymity extension

By Karen Kruzycka | Sat 22nd May 2010 - 4:12 pm

The full Coalition agreement, published this week, contained the following commitment:

We will extend anonymity in rape cases to defendants.

(Section 20 “Justice”, page 24)

This issue wasn’t mentioned in either party’s manifesto; nor, I believe, during the election campaign. Neither was it something to which the previous Government aspired. It had been voted through at the Liberal Democrat annual conference in 2006, but allowed to lie dormant since. The Lords approved it as an amendment in 2003 but it went no further. As such, it’s a rather a bolt out of the blue.

In the not-too-distant past, there was no anonymity …