In August 2021, Derbyshire County Council believed there were “reasonable grounds to believe Rhianan may have been a victim of modern slavery” and the police received notification of this and would “look at the case in more detail”, the inquest heard.
In October, the same month that Rhianan got her autism diagnosis, the CPS prosecutor in her case reviewed the criminal proceedings, but the court was told it was still deemed “in the public interest” to continue with the prosecution at that point.
The court heard that Rhianan was arrested a few weeks after, on October 21, and the Crown Prosecution Service (CPS) counter terrorism division received a referral from police that month.
Nick Price, former head of the CPS counter terrorism division, told the inquest that they did not make a referral to the National Referral Mechanism (NRM), which identifies victims of human trafficking or modern slavery, and that was to be done by the police or local authority.
Her charges were dropped on December 29 2021, the court heard, because of her autism diagnosis and “other material” which demonstrated her vulnerabilities and “passed doubt on the legitimacy of her intention”, the court heard.
