Dear Mr Hall,Re: Your correspondence to Sarah Sackman MPI am a District Crown Prosecutor (legal manager,) for the Crown Prosecution Service (CPS) in the South East. I have been forwarded your correspondence dated 17 July 2025 addressed to Sarah Sackman MP. As you are not a constituent, the Ministerial Correspondence Support Team forwarded your email to the CPS for response. As the case is still live, I am unable to discuss the evidence with you.It may useful if I deal briefly with the respective roles of the CPS and police in relation to criminal allegations. It is the role of the police to initially investigate and gather evidence and then, in appropriate cases, they will charge a suspect without referring the case to the CPS and this is what happened in this case.Following receipt of the case from the police it is allocated to a lawyer to undertake a review of the case in accordance with the Code for Crown Prosecutors.It would be helpful if I take the opportunity to explain how the CPS is required to undertake a review of a case. The CPS is required to follow the Code for Crown Prosecutors (“The Code”) every time a case is reviewed. The Code sets out a two-stage test. A Crown Prosecutor must first determine if an evidential test has been met. If the evidential test is satisfied, he or she must then consider if the public interest test has been met. A copy of the Code can be found online at:https://www.cps.gov.uk/publication/code-crown-prosecutorsSouth East Victim Liaison Unit, Crown Prosecution Service, 3rd Floor, Police Station, John Street, Brighton BN2 0LASouthEastVRRandcomplaints@cps.gov.uk | 01273 322283 | cps.gov.ukThe Code requires Crown Prosecutors to consider whether there is a realistic prospect of conviction. That means that a Crown Prosecutor has to be satisfied that it is more likely than not that magistrates or a jury would convict. This is a different test from the one that the criminal court themselves must apply. A court may only convict if it is sure of a person’s guilt.If a Crown Prosecutor decides that a jury or magistrates would more likely than not convict on the evidence, they must then go on to consider whether it is in the public interest to prosecute. Only if both of these stages are met may charges be authorised. All cases are kept under continual review. In your case, an initial review has been undertaken, and an action plan has been sent to police for further work. Upon receipt of the response from police a further review will be undertaken. A decision about whether a case should continue or be stopped can only be made once the Full Code Test can be applied and we have not yet reached that stage.I am sorry that I am unable to comment further at this stage