LONDON (TIP): Radical changes to the way sex offences are investigated have been hailed as a “huge step forward” by campaigners.

New guidance to be issued to all police forces and prosecutors will require rape suspects to convince the authorities that a woman consented to sex.

Police and prosecutors must now put a greater burden of responsibility on rape suspects to demonstrate how the complainant had consented “with full capacity and freedom to do so”, according to the new guidance. Rape victims should no longer be “blamed” by society if they are too drunk to consent to sex, or if they simply freeze and say nothing, Alison Saunders, the director of public prosecutions, said. “For too long society has blamed rape victims for confusing the issue of consent – by drinking or dressing provocatively for example – but it is not they who are confused, it is society itself and we must challenge that,” Saunders told the the first national crown prosecution service/police conference on rape investigations and prosecutions in London.

“Consent to sexual activity is not a grey area – in law it is clearly defined and must be given fully and freely.

“It is not a crime to drink, but it is a crime to target someone who is no longer capable of consenting to sex,” Saunders said.