HUNDREDS of rapists are escaping justice because of the continuing confusion over the issue of consent and a court environment hostile to victims.

In an attempt to boost stubbornly low rape conviction rates, video tapes of distraught rape victims describing attacks to police just hours after being assaulted are to be allowed in court. The plan comes as a report published today reveals a “lottery” on whether a rape allegation ends in a court conviction.

Ministers are alarmed that conviction rates remain low and that some rapists are escaping justice, particularly when victims have been drinking.

Mike O’Brien, QC, the Solicitor-General, said: “An awful lot of people who are committing rapes are getting away with it.”

Fiona Mactaggart, a Home Office minister, said: “There is clear evidence that the mismatch between convictions and reports suggests that there are people who have raped who don’t get convicted.”

The Government wants to allow video film of traumatised women and men reporting details of their attacks to be shown as evidence to ensure that jurors understand the full enormity of the crime.

The plan was announced yesterday as part of a package of proposals to increase the number of suspects convicted of rape in England and Wales. Only 1 in 20 rape allegations in 2004 ended in a guilty verdict and thousands of cases were dropped before prosecution.

Other proposals include allowing experts to give evidence about a rape victim’s general behaviour after the attack. This will allow expert witnesses to explain why traumatised women sometimes delay reporting a rape. Ministers will also examine whether greater legal protection should be offered to those who are unable to consent to sex because of alcohol or drug use. At the moment a person is deemed incapable of giving consent if asleep or unconcious but the legal position is unclear when the victim in conscious but judgment is clouded by drink or drugs.

Ministers also want to permit “hearsay” evidence about when victims report attacks to friends but not to police.

Yesterday’s proposals follow a case last November when a student was acquitted of raping another student who had been drinking on the ground that “drunken consent is still consent”. It raised fears that rapists might target “binge-drinking” women in the knowledge that they were unlikely to face trial.

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