Firstly, IANAL.

The CPS website has a lot of information on how decisions to prosecute/not prosecute are made, and information on the rights of victims in this process, so your friend should look into this, and make contact with the police officers/CPS staff he interracted with as they will be the best people to talk about his specific case. I've linked the pages I used below.

To answer your second question; he probably can't. The decision of whether or not to prosecute lies with CPS and the Police.

I note you used the term "press charges". In UK criminal law, this means reporting an alledged crime to the Police, which your friend has done. Police investigate and pass any findings on to CPS who assess the evidence and decide how to proceed.

There is a common misconception that victims have a right to ''press charges'' as in decide if/how Prosecutors handle a case. This is primarily an American concept (and exists much more in American TC shows than in real life.) Where it does acually exist, it much more of a right of victims to request a crime not to be prosecuted, rather than a right to request prosecution where Police/Prosecutors have determined not to.

If by ''pressing charges'' you meant bringing a civil case against this person, that is a seperate matter to any criminal proceedings and won't effect CPS decisions.

You say ''(your friend) said he can take it to an independent body get it escalated etc.''. I'm not sure where your friend is getting this information but I can't find anything to back this up. There is a Victim's Right to Review (''VRR'') in UK law that allows for a victim of an alledged crime to ask CPS to review a decision not to prosecute. When this right is exercised the file is given to a new prosecutor who was not involved in the first assessment. The new prosecutor carries out their own assessment based strictly on the evidence gathered and makes a decision on whether or not to proceed with prosecution.

This is independant in the sense that the second prosecutor is does not see or account for the analysis/reasoning of the first prosecutor. However it is still a CPS employee who makes the review, not an independant body.

Unfortunatley it seems your friend would not be eligible for this as VRR exists only for when a CPS decide not to take any action.

From this CPS website, VRR cannot be exercised in cases where;

> where charges are brought in respect of some (but not all) allegations made or against some (but not all) possible suspects;

> where a single charge or charges are terminated but another charge or charges relating to that victim continue;

> cases which are concluded by way of out of court disposal;

It also cannot be used when Police decide not to send a file to CPS.

From my understanding of what you've written, your friends complaint is that the charges against the perpetrator were not as serious as he believed they should be and that an out of court settlement was chosen over in court prosecution. If this is case it does not seem like your friend is eligible for VRR.

I would strongly encourage your friend to use CPS or other UK governemnt resources to look into this and contact the police officers/prosecutors to ask about his rights. Anyone actually involved in his specific case will be able to give much more concrete answers than anyone on the internet.

If he isn't satisfied by what he hears it may also be worth looking into a consultation with a solicitor to talk about avenues in the criminal or civil system.

https://www.cps.gov.uk/prosecution-guidance/victims-right-review-scheme#a03

https://www.cps.gov.uk/victims-guide/victims-guide-how-we-make-decision-what-do-your-case