CAMPAIGNERS are urging the government to protect repeat victims of rape and sexual violence from unscrupulous lawyers using previous attacks against them in court.

The government’s Victims and Courts Bill, which was introduced in Parliament today, outlines new measures to better protect victims and improve access to justice.

They include powers for judges to punish criminals who refuse to attend sentencing, including more jail time or loss of privileges in prison.

The Bill also plans to restrict parental responsibility from child sex offenders who committed serious crimes against their own child to boost protection for victims.

But the Centre for Women’s Justice, End Violence Against Women Coalition, Imkaan, Rape Crisis England & Wales and Rights of Women say the legislation does not go far enough.

They are calling on the government to use the Bill to put an end to harmful and re-traumatising legal practices that wrongly seek to discredit rape survivors.

This allows lawyers to use previous disclosures of rape and sexual violence that victims have made as evidence of their “bad character” — even when these previous experiences are completely unconnected to the case.

The groups say that in a significant number of cases, judges are allowing the defence to cross-examine victim-survivors about previous unrelated experiences of sexual violence in front of the jury.

This is a defence strategy to present the jury with an unfair or twisted narrative that the survivor is untruthful, when there is actually no evidence of this, according to the groups.

They are calling for the Bill to provide judges with clearer guidelines on when a previous disclosure is admissible.

This means amending section 100 of the Criminal Justice Act 2003 to state that there must be a proper evidential basis to assert that the previous disclosure was false.

End Violence Against Women Coalition’s Rebecca Hitchen said: “The criminal justice system can often be a site of harm for survivors, rather than a route to justice.

“This must change. One clear way the government can address this is by strengthening the Victims and Courts Bill to restrict the use of a survivor’s previous experiences of sexual violence as part of a defence strategy.

“The reality is that many women experience multiple incidents of sexual violence over their lifetime — this should not used against them.

“This traumatic and profoundly distressing practice undermines their ability to give evidence. It must be stopped.”

Justice Secretary Shabana Mahmood said: “There is still more work to do as we fix a justice system that was left on the brink of collapse, but this Bill is a step towards rebuilding victims’ confidence through our Plan for Change.”