Victims of rape and serious sexual assault who refuse to give police access to their mobile phone contents could allow suspects to avoid charges, two top officials have said. According to a report in The Guardian, new national consent forms authorising detectives to search texts, images and call data are proving controversial, Metropolitan police assistant commissioner Nick Ephgrave has admitted, as the difficulties of disclosure in the digital age risk pitting the pursuit of justice against preserving privacy. And the Director of Public Prosecutions, Max Hill, said: ‘You can end up in an extreme case where there’s outright refusal (by a complainant) to allow access (to mobile phone contents) … and that can have consequences for our ability to pursue a prosecution.’ Everyone, he said, needs to understand that if they get caught up in a crime, whether as witness or complainant, there may be information on their mobiles that is relevant. In a briefing aimed at explaining the dilemmas faced by officers and prosecutors, Hill and Ephgrave called for people to have ‘trust and confidence’ in the criminal justice system if investigators are to reverse recent sharp falls in prosecution rates. Around 93 000 police officers and staff have undergone disclosure training in the past year to ensure they appreciate that providing the defence with timely access to relevant evidence was obligatory, Mike Cunningham, CE of the College of Policing, revealed.