Ministers will outline plans this week to boost the rate of convictions in rape cases by countering myths that may sway juries in cases of sexual assault.

Vera Baird, QC, the Solicitor-General, wants juries in rape trials to be issued with “myth-busting” packs that would demolish notions such as that women who drink or dress provocatively are “asking for it”.

Details of the proposal have not been finalised because there is some concern that pretrial information given by the prosecution could be regarded as prejudicial.

An alternative to giving the information in a booklet or pack to all juries in rape cases might be to have the trial judge give the information in a direction to the jury.

A legal source said: “People think that rape is a man in a mask waylaying a woman on a towpath, when it could be in a domestic context or a date rape. There are also all kinds of myths about the way a woman dresses or that she was drinking, and about men’s sexual drive being unstoppable.”

The idea of the “myth-busting” packs comes as ministers have decided to abandon a controversial idea to use expert witnesses to brief juries on the myths that surround rape, after concern by judges that this could lead to miscarriages of justice.

The idea, based on what happens in some US courts, could be costly and also create problems. If complainants failed to fit the profile of a “true” rape victim as devised by experts then they may be deterred from lodging a complaint.

Ministers are also to change the way that the Crown approaches complaints months after the alleged attack. At present, delayed complaints are often ruled inadmissible. The Court of Appeal has already ruled that early accounts given to people other than police may now be admissible.

The response by ministers, to be given by the Attorney-General in the Lords and the Solicitor-General in the Commons, comes after a consultation on rape prosecutions issued last year.

Ministers pledged to reform the law after the conviction rate dropped from 33 per cent of reported rapes in 1977 to 5.4 per cent in 2005, although this rose slightly to 5.7 per cent last year.

But the proposals have run into opposition from judges and lawyers who said that they would make little difference to the conviction rate.

Ministers have already dropped plans to clarify the law on drunkenness and consent after guidelines to judges were issued by the Court of Appeal in March when it quashed the conviction of Benjamin Bree, a software engineer found guilty of raping a 19-year-old woman after a night of binge drinking.

The proposals for the use of expert witnesses have also run into opposition from circuit judges, who cautioned that this could be a “mine-field”.

A joint report by the Inspectorate of Constabulary and the Crown Prosecution Service concluded this year that many police officers and prosecutors were only paying lip-service to new policies aimed at boosting the number of rape complaints that reach court.

Nearly one third of allegations to police were wrongly categorised as “no crime”, and between half and two thirds of victims find that their case does not progress beyond the investigation stage.

- Television advertisements warning teenagers that a drunken encounter in a nightclub can end in rape have been produced by Greater Manchester Police (Russell Jenkins writes). It is the first time that a police force has commissioned a television campaign about rape. It cost £30,000 to shoot.

Scant justice

14,449 rape offences recorded in 2005-06

728 rape convictions in the same year

6% conviction rate in the UK is less than 6 per cent

40% of adults who are raped tell no one

Sources: Home Office, Fawcett Society

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