England: Figures sought to explain reluctance of revenge porn complainants

Ministers want better figures on revenge porn cases to find out why so many complainants withdraw after reporting offences, the Solicitor General Robert Buckland QC MP has said.

He was responding to points raised by his Labour counterpart, Nick Thomas-Symonds MP in the Commons, The Brief reports.

“Victim withdrawal is starting to become a problem in cases of revenge pornography,” the Labour MP said at Attorney General questions, where Mr Buckland stood in for Jeremy Wright QC.

Mr Buckland noted that the UK government recently launched a consultation into ways to support alleged victims.

He said that “any measures that we take in order to first of all prevent complainants from having to come to court, by giving evidence via live link – all of those measures need to be part of a continuing package.

“And the message needs to go out that victims will not suffer in silence and they will be supported.”

He added that there has been a need to “disaggregate particular batches of data in order for us to understand them better”.

Prosecutors, he said, had “certainly improved on that. We have started to disaggregate in a number of areas and I will follow up the matter that he’s raised with me specifically on revenge pornography”.