FEWER than one in four rape cases brought to court by Lancashire Police result in a conviction, figures show.

Data released by the Ministry of Justice reveals that in 2017 only 23 per cent of the force’s prosecutions for rape were successful.

Last year the force brought 156 cases to court, and 36 resulted in convictions.

The conviction rate is lower than for other sexual offences, and it’s also worse than other serious crimes such as grievous bodily harm, which is 34 per cent.

However, Supt Ian Whitehead,said the conviction rate for rape was higher than the national average - which is one in five - and that the force was ‘continually striving to improve outcomes for all victims’.

Supt Whitehead said: “We want victims to feel confident that they will be treated with compassion and that we will do everything possible to trace those responsible and take action against them.

“Most of the reports of rape that we receive are committed by someone that the victim knows in some way – incidents of stranger rape are very rare.

"Investigations of rape usually identify the offender as being a family member, a friend, someone who has groomed them before committing the attack or someone they have met on a night out. All these factors can often make it hard for a victim to want to report the crime.

“Throughout our involvement in a report of rape, and its subsequent investigation, we offer a victim-centred approach. Rape is a traumatic crime and the victim is at the heart of everything that we do.

“The constabulary has introduced a number of measures over the past few years to ensure that victims are treated professionally, with sensitivity and with regard for their future safety and well-being.”

The data includes cases where rape is the principle or most serious offence, so incidents where the victim was killed would be counted as murder or manslaughter.

However the data shows that prosecutions for Lancashire are getting more successful. In 2016, 22 per cent of rape cases brought to court resulted in convictions.

Dr Hannah Bows, lecturer in criminology at Teesside University, said that while it was hard to judge without knowing the details of cases, the figures were ‘particularly surprising’.

“It shows something is going wrong either with charging decisions being made by the Crown Prosecution Service or what’s happening in court."

“Something is going wrong because the evidence required in rape cases to get a case brought to court is so high. Any question marks and the case is unlikely to go forward.

“That’s why it’s so frustrating when people say there are loads of false rape cases because it’s not true.”

Dr Bows is also concerned these figures will put people off from reporting rape allegations.

“It’s a pretty horrible and pretty lengthy process anyway,” she explained.

“Often the victim feels like they’re on trial. If someone said to you do you want to have your whole life exposed for around a one-in-four chance of success, you’d probably say no.”

Dr Bows thinks there needs to be a complete reassessment of how rape cases are brought to court, as ‘what is happening now is clearly not working’.

The process of rape trials has been in the news after several collapsed at the turn of the year over problems with disclosure of evidence.

The trial of Liam Allan was stopped at Croydon Crown Court, after an officer had failed to find key evidence, including 57,000 messages between the alleged victim and Mr Allan.

Three other trials were halted within the next month, leading the CPS to review all rape cases that were being brought to court.

Cleveland Police currently has the highest conviction rate for rape cases in England and Wales, which is 32%, while in Cumbria only 9% of cases brought to court were successful.

A CPS spokeswoman said: “Rape and serious sexual offences are some of the most complex cases prosecuted by the CPS and we have worked hard in recent years to improve how we deal with these cases.

“We have almost doubled the number of specialist prosecutors in our dedicated Rape and Serious Sexual Offence units and improved the support we offer victims through criminal proceedings.”