A woman has abandoned a rape case after five years of fighting after delays and errors from both the police and the Crown Prosecution Service.

Speaking to The Guardian, the woman said that “the system that everything goes through is completely wrong”.

“If it happened again, I would rather not report it,” she said. “I want to start healing. I hope this will never happen to anyone else again.”

The woman was allegedly raped in 2013 by a colleague in the hotel that they both worked in. After sharing a shift, the pair slept in separate beds: she says she was woken by him sexually assaulting her. She immediately called the police, the man was arrested, and swabs were taken: he later fled abroad.

Five years have passed since this original investigation – and the errors and delays were only exposed after a CPS legal manager sent the woman a letter explaining what happened.

“I do apologise for the delay we have directly caused to the issuing of the arrest warrant,” he wrote. “During a substantial period of 2013 to 2015 the CPS were not seized of your case as we awaited information from the police so that we could draft the relevant warrant. However, from August 2016 until September 2017 the CPS did have conduct of the case and did not act with all due diligence.”

Woman forced to abandon rape case after five years of error and delay