7:00pm Monday 15th March 2010
By Paula Roberts
SUPPORT for rape victims and the way the crime is investigated has significantly improved, police in Bournemouth and Poole say.
A raft of measures is in place to ensure every victim is offered full support, from the moment they report the crime all the way through the judicial process.
A landmark review was published yesterday by Baroness Stern, who looked into the way rape is handled by public authorities from complaint to the verdict of a court.
She said every victim of rape should be offered the support of an independent sexual violence adviser to provide a key link between the victim and police, prosecutors and charity groups.
DI Steve Thorpe of Bournemouth and Poole’s public protection unit said the force already has such advisers working in the county.
He said victims of rape and other violent sexual offences are first dealt with by specially trained incident response offices who then refer them on to specially trained officers from the public protection unit and the independent advisers.
“We treat every report on its merit. If someone has reported an allegation of rape we will investigate that as thoroughly as we can.
“We have got a specially dedicated team looking at them, which is clearly the right way forward.”
He added: “We have started to see the benefits of it. Rape investigations for Bourne-mouth and Poole has significantly improved. We need to make sure we are doing the same across the force.”
He said officers also liase with the Crown Prosecution Service early on in the investigation to ensure the right evidence is being gathered for a successful prosecution.
Baroness Stern also called for every police force to have at least one sexual assault referral centre by next year and DI Thorpe said work is still ongoing towards setting up a centre in Dorset.
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