North Yorkshire’s chief crown prosecutor, Xanthe Tait, talks about her new job

Um, no, actually, it’s three out of four. She blushes, then laughs good-naturedly. “Maths is not my strong point,” she says.

Perhaps we have reason to be grateful for that. If she had been good at maths, she might have been a pilot, instead of North Yorkshire’s chief crown prosecutor.

As a girl, she had always dreamed of joining the RAF. She was inspired by her father, who joined the service in the ranks, and worked his way up to be a squadron leader. Xanthe was determined to follow in his footsteps, taking GCSEs in physics and A-levels because she knew that was what was needed.

But her maths let her down. Having “failed in my first aspiration to be a pilot”, she followed her interests instead, studying history and English at university, and then training in criminal law.

The RAF’s loss may well be our gain. Because this is a woman who burns with a sense of justice – and who is very clearly on the side of the victim.

She became North Yorkshire’s new chief crown prosecutor at the beginning of March, and she is clearly determined to make rape and violence against women a top priority.

That 76 per cent conviction rate is very good – it compares with a national average conviction rate of 59 per cent, and a national target of 61 per cent – but she feels it is not good enough. It only applies to cases that the Crown Prosecution Service (CPS) has taken on, she says. There are many cases of alleged rape that, for whatever reason, don’t get that far.

What particularly outrages her are the old myths about women “asking for it” – that because they dressed in a certain way, or had been drinking, they somehow deserve what happened.

No way, she says. If a woman has been drinking, it can make the prosecutor’s job more difficult. But it is no excuse for rape, and it is no defence for an alleged rapist. “It goes back to this thing that ‘no means no’.”

Even through the sometimes legalistic language, her indignation shines through. Rape is a hateful crime, she says – all the more so for often being a very intimate, very private one.

“I have prosecuted rape cases – I couldn’t tell you how many. It is the most invasive, intrusive, devastating offence,” she says. It’s also very complex. “One of the victims quoted in the Stern review [a review into the reporting of rape cases in England and Wales] said it was about power and violation rather than lustfulness.”

There is a hint of the tigress protecting her young about her as she talks. The 36-year-old has two young daughters – Isabella, or Bella, aged three, and Beatrice, or Bee, nearly two. In the days when she was regularly prosecuting cases in court, she says, she used to draw a “professional strength from knowing that, for those victims, it could have been my daughters, or it could have been my relatives, or it could have been a dear friend”.

Before anyone should accuse her of caring only about rape victims, it should be pointed out that she is talking about all victims – anyone who has been raped, assaulted, burgled or mugged.

It is the Crown Prosecution Service’s job to stand up for victims, she says. And she has always had a strong sense of justice. “It perhaps comes from my father’s reasons for being in the military, which was about patriotism, serving Queen and country, and a strong sense of championing others’ rights.”

Her own upbringing in a military environment also undoubtedly helped instil in her a strong sense of public duty, she adds.

It may well be that sense of public duty that made her decide against a life as a private defence lawyer, in favour of being a public prosecutor.

She did some criminal defence work while training as a solicitor, she says.

“But I knew early on that private practice was not for me. The competing priorities… the need to deliver a strong emotional defence for a client, and that client then having to be billed for that service… I feel uneasy with that.”

Not that it is not a perfectly valid career choice for other lawyers, she stresses. “There is a need for defendants to be represented. But for me, public service is the right thing.”

Her priorities as North Yorkshire’s new chief prosecutor are to stand up for the victim, to deliver justice – and to boost conviction rates across the board.

She is also keen to see a North Yorkshire sexual assault referral centre set up, which would bring together the CPS, the police, health workers and victim support organisations to work with all victims of sexual assault – women, children and men – to make it easier for them to bring cases to court.

Yes, men get sexually assaulted too, she says – by women or by other men. As a society, we are not very good at dealing with that: there are all kinds of taboos and stereotypes. Men often won’t admit what has happened, even to themselves, for fear of being seen as weak, as a victim. Even getting men to accept what has happened will be a big step forward.

Another area of CPS work she is keen to improve on is POCA – recovering money from criminals that they earned through their criminal behaviour.

“That is one of the ways that we can demonstrate that crime really doesn’t pay,” she says.

“If we can show that the drug dealer who has bought their home with the proceeds of drug dealing can lose that home… that’s a really strong message. It is not a money-making exercise: it is part of delivering justice.”

Xanthe Tait on…

Family life

Ms Tait’s father was in the RAF – and so is her husband. Adrian Tait is a wing commander, based near London. The family live in Darlington – until coming to York, Ms Tait was a district crown prosecutor in Durham – which means long commutes every weekend for her husband. It also means she relies heavily on her mum, who lives nearby, for support.

She took six months maternity leave after having each of her two children. They are still, she admits with a smile, the most challenging part of her life. “But they are the most enjoyable part as well.”

Being in court

Now that she has been promoted to chief crown prosecutor for North Yorkshire, in charge of a team of 81 prosecutors and support staff who, in the past year, have dealt with almost 9,000 cases, she no longer tries many cases in court.

“I will miss it,” she says. “I hope to now and then be able to sneak back in.”

She loves the cut and thrust of the courtroom, she admits – the intellectual challenge of taking the evidence, the facts of the case, and applying the law to them.

We have an ‘adversarial’ system of law – one in which defence and prosecution each seek to present the facts in their own way. But prosecutors don’t blindly set out to convict, she says. They have a duty to be fair and objective, and to look at the evidence, and apply the law to it. “We aspire to aim for the truth.”

Victims’ experiences

Going to court can be traumatic for victims of crime, Ms Tait acknowledges. It is important that the experience is made as easy as possible, and there are a range of measures the CPS can put in place to ensure vulnerable victims and witnesses are comfortable giving their evidence.

There is also practical help available, such as with child care.

“Victims and witnesses are at the core of what we do. We need to know where we are getting it right and, more importantly, I don’t want us to be blindly carrying on thinking we are doing a good job if we’re not,” she says.

She firmly believes the CPS in North Yorkshire do a good job in prosecuting cases. If you have been involved in a court case in North Yorkshire as a victim of crime and feel it has not been dealt with appropriately, you can get in touch with her at CPS, Athena House, Kettlestring Lane, Clifton Moor, York YO30 4XP.

If you have a problem with the way your case was administered, however, or anything to do with the practical arrangements when you arrive at court, you will need to contact the court manager where the case was heard. Anything to do with the investigation of the crime will need to be referred to North Yorkshire Police.

Mephedrone

Mephedrone, the so-called ‘legal high’ drug also known as M-CAT, meow and bubbles, is to be banned. It will be made a class B substance, the same as amphetamines, in the next few weeks.

Will that lead to a rush of new cases, and how will prosecutors proceed?

They will prosecute mephedrone cases in the same way as other drugs cases – by looking at the evidence, and the public interest, as laid out in the Crown Prosecutors’ Code, she says.

Does the ‘public interest’ mean that they will be influenced by the national debate over the drug to make it a high priority?

“We will reflect the community concerns, particularly for North Yorkshire.”