Victims of sexual offences in Bradford face the longest wait for justice in the North East, a new investigation has revealed. 

It currently takes 307 days on average for sexual offence cases to go through Bradford Crown Court, putting many victims' lives on hold.

Not only was Bradford ranked the worst in the North East for sexual offence cases to go through the courts, Bradford was found to be the fifth worst in England and Wales.

It comes after one top barrister warned that a lack of investment in the city's criminal justice system has "eroded any ability for it to cope with demand".

Bradford Telegraph and Argus: View outside Bradford Crown Court.View outside Bradford Crown Court.

Court case delays

The BBC News investigation team searched through data for 70 crown courts across England and Wales, exclusively obtained by a Freedom of Information request.

Jayne Butler, CEO at Rape Crisis, told the BBC: "The idea for some of just not being able to carry on is real. They just can’t wait any longer, so they will just stop and opt out of that process and not take the case forward.

"I think that’s having a real impact. The longer [a case] goes on, the much harder it is to get the kind of evidence that courts are looking for, the kind of testimony in court that will result in successful prosecution.”

One woman, who was raped in 2017, shared an insight into the trauma of waiting for cases to go to trial.

Despite damning evidence, police and prosecutors took two years to charge her attacker who was only convicted in late summer 2021.

The woman, whose identity has been protected, told BBC News: "The delays meant my ordeal was extended and then having to deal with the additional impacts of a court system with a lack of understanding of how people feel in that scenario."

Overall, cases in Leicester had the highest delays with cases taking an average of 15 months to go through the justice system.

Justice Secretary Dominic Raab said delays were caused by the pandemic.

Mr Raab said: "I know that it's very difficult for anyone that's been a victim of rape or serious sexual violence.

"You recover from the original crime - and then you've got to muster the courage to go through the [courts] process. I'm absolutely committed to making sure those victims have the support at every step of the way."