Sexual assault victims charged tens of thousands of pounds for court documents

Domestic abuse and sexual violence victims are being charged up to tens of thousands of pounds to access court scripts after being wrongly advised not to attend court, The Independent has learned.

Victims have described how police officers, the Crown Prosecution Service and barristers have recommended that they don’t go back into court after giving evidence and don’t attend their perpetrator’s sentencing.

This means that they don’t often hear the defence of their attackers and are then left with unanswered questions about their court cases which can only be resolved by paying the high cost of court transcripts.

, son of , who was killing her husband after decades of psychological abuse, said he had struggled to move on from the trauma of the case because he had been blocked from finding