Miliband calls for Clarke to quit over rape comments

Ed Miliband called for Ken Clarke to resign in the wake of the justice secretary’s comments about rape on Wednesday morning.

In heated clashes at prime minister’s questions, the Labour leader said the justice secretary “should not be in his post by the end of today” after he differentiated between different kinds of rape.

Mr Clarke is already embroiled in a row over proposals for enhanced plea bargaining whereby sentences, for rape and other serious crimes, could be cut further in return for a guilty plea.

In a radio interview earlier on Wednesday the justice secretary implied that some instances of rape were more serious than others.

“I don’t think many judges give five years for a forcible rape. Frankly, the tariff is longer for that and a serious rape where there’s violence and an unwilling woman, the tariff’s much longer than that.” Asked whether “rape is rape”, Mr Clarke replied: “No, it’s not.”

“Date rape can be as serious as the worst rapes but date rapes... in my very old experience of being in trials... they do vary extraordinarily one from another and in the end the judge has to decide on the circumstances,” the former lawyer said.

Ken Clarke has come under pressure to resign following comments he made on radio relating to the definition of rape

Mr Miliband said Mr Clarke had suggested there were “serious rapes and other categories of rape” adding: “The justice secretary can’t speak for the women of this country when he makes comments like that.”

David Cameron did not comment on Mr Clarke’s future during the House of Commons exchanges, saying he had not heard the relevant interview. But the prime minister said that rape was “one of the most serious crimes there is”.

However, Mr Cameron did defend the government’s ongoing review of plea bargaining, pointing out that only 6 per cent of rape allegations ended with a conviction. It was wrong that 94 per cent of potential rapists were still wandering the streets, he declared to the Commons.

For that reason it was worth examining the case for extending plea bargaining, a system that existed in many other countries including the US, he said.

During the interview with BBC Radio 5 Live, the justice secretary endured a bruising encounter with a member of the public who had been raped.

The tearful woman said she had fought the criminal justice system for 688 days, only for the rapist to have his sentence reduced for pleading guilty – and then go on to commit another offence.

Mr Clarke had argued that he was trying to “reduce the trauma” for victims of rape by getting more suspects to plead guilty.

“At the moment, you get a cut in the sentence you are given if you plead guilty, and save the witnesses the ordeal of going through it. That is, at the moment, a third. That is the system I have taken over,” he said.

“What I am suggesting is that, if you do it early and save the victim and the witnesses all the trauma of going through the preparation of going to a trial – a half can be given as a discount.”

Mr Clarke said that rape still tended to attract sentences of at least six years with more than 10 years a typical sentence.

But Vera Baird QC, the Labour former solicitor general, told Radio 4’s Today programme the standard sentence for rape started at five years, which was “not an enormously high sentence already for an injurious crime”.

“If you are talking about halving it to two-and-a-half years and then a person gets out halfway through their sentence on licence which is usual, then we are talking about sentences of 15 months which have no regard at all for the gravity of the offence and gives no time for rehabilitation or training,” she said.

Asked whether the prime minister would sack Mr Clarke, his spokesman said: “No.” But there was ill-disguised anger in Downing St about Mr Clarke’s comments and a hope that the justice secretary would make it clear how seriously he took “all kinds of rapes”.

THE FACTS

WHAT HAS BEEN PROPOSED? A recent Ministry of Justice green paper sets out a new sentencing framework proposing that judges take into account the benefits of an early guilty plea which, it argues, would spare victims the worry and distress of a court case, writes Jane Croft. Offenders who plead guilty at the first possible opportunity can currently receive a maximum of one-third off their sentence. The green paper is examining whether there should be a maximum discount of up to 50 per cent for those who plead guilty to crimes at the earliest stage. The list of offences covered has not been finalised but is expected to include rape. The average starting point for a rape sentence is currently five years. Judges will continue to maintain discretion over sentencing. WHAT DO CRITICS SAY? The Women’s Resource Centre has said that the proposals to reform rape sentences amount to a “slap on the wrist for this most serious of crimes”. The Criminal Bar Association has given the green paper a cautious welcome. However, it has said that it is unrealistic to expect a significant increase in the number of defendants who plead guilty at an early stage, unless the evidence they are to face is served on them in a timely fashion. FT VERDICT There is much to be said for increasing the incentive for criminals to plead guilty at an early stage. Two-thirds of all cases reaching crown court already end in a guilty plea. In 2009 more than 10,000 defendants pleaded guilty at the door of the court. In many circumstances defendants could have admitted their guilt at a much earlier stage in the magistrates’ court – saving court costs and police time. Early guilty pleas can also reduce the distress and delays suffered by victims, particularly in cases of rape. Currently, they are forced to wait and see if they should give evidence, often to find the defendant has pleaded guilty at the last minute.