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TRENDING & NEWS
In England and Wales, alleged rape victims will no longer have to face scrutiny or cross-examination in court. Instead, the justice secretary Elizabeth 'Liz' Truss has set out sweeping reforms which will allow all alleged sex abuse victims to pre-record all their testimony before a trial, and to exempt them from having to attend court proceedings themselves.

Ms Truss said pilot schemes showed pre-recorded interviews led to "a higher level of early guilty pleas", and that as such, these new laws will come into force across the nation in September. In her Sunday Times interview, she said "It reduces the level of trauma for the victim. I want to see that being the standard offer in those cases and that will give more victims confidence to come forward."

Ms Truss also said that the pre-recorded interviews will provide "much clearer ground rules" to counsel, adding that "At the moment, prior sexual history can only be asked about in exceptional circumstances, but sometimes questions can be asked that verge on that territory. If a question is asked that is inadmissible, that can be cut out of the tape by the judge."

But several argue that this will have a huge impact on those people who are falsely accused of rape. James Conte, founder of accused. me. uk said: "If you are a wholly innocent victim of someone trying to frame you, you will not welcome these changes because they will increase the chances that you will be wrongfully convicted." Zoe Gascoyne, chairwoman of the Criminal Law Solicitors Association, told the newspaper that taped interviews before a trial would not take into account real-time developments, and said: "This may be a step too far."

So what's your opinion of these new changes to the law? How much easier do you think that this will make it to accuse people of rape, and to get them convicted? And do you think that this will be a good thing or a bad thing?