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Prosecutions and convictions for child sexual abuse have fallen by around half in four years as victims are left waiting nearly two years for cases to be heard amid 'increasingly long and distressing court delays', research by a children's charity suggests.
The total number of prosecutions in England and Wales more than halved from 6,394 in 2016/17 to 3,025 in 2020/21, while the number of convictions dropped by 45% - falling from 4,751 to 2,595 - in the same period, data obtained by the NSPCC reveals.
Additional figures provided by the Ministry of Justice under the Freedom of Information Act showed that cases were taking longer to resolve, with the median number of days from offence to completion rising from 526 in 2017/18, to 668 in 2020/21.
England and Wales have experienced court closures, a drop in court staff, a shortage of registered intermediaries and a 57% increase in police reports of child sexual abuse in five years, the charity revealed.
Prosecutions and convictions for child sexual abuse have fallen by around half in four years (stock image)
The NSPCC is calling on Dominic Raab to review and reverse the decline in prosecutions and convictions
