Contents

Report 6 of the 9 December 2010 meeting of the Strategic and Operational Policing Committee, provides an update report from SCD2 Sapphire after 12 months of operational activity..

Warning: This is archived material and may be out of date. The Metropolitan Police Authority has been replaced by the Mayor's Office for Policing and Crime (MOPC).

See the MOPC website for further information.

Update report from SCD2: Sapphire after 12 months of operational activity

Report: 6
Date: 9 December 2010
By: Assistant Commissioner Specialist Crime on behalf of the Commissioner

Summary

SCD2 Sapphire took operational responsibility for the investigation of serious sexual offences on 29 September 2009. This report follows that of 4th March 2010 to this Committee.

The MPS has invested significant management and training resources into the investigation of rape offences since setting up the Sapphire Command. All rape offences are now investigated in a single Business Group-SCD, with dedicated and experienced detectives at all levels.

The last 12 months have seen a significant increase in sexual offences recorded across the MPS, the greatest increases being of the more serious crimes. It is believed that about half of this increase relates to the significant improvement in compliance with the National Crime Recording Standards having centralised crime management functions, evidenced by a 100% reduction in the % of rape allegations which are subsequently finalised as ‘no crime’. This now stands at the national average.

There has been a large rise in the number of crimes reported through third parties and, it is believed, in the total number of victims coming forward to Police.
In response to the increased demands, additional staff have been allocated to SCD2 from current MPS budgets and interim support is being provided by staff from the Murder Command.

The process for gathering feedback from victims has improved and the majority of respondents report being satisfied with the services they received. The relationship with the CPS has developed with the London Rape Charging Centre delivering greater consistency in decision making. Work across the criminal justice partnership is supporting an increase in rape prosecutions and reduction in the rape case attrition rate for London.

A. Recommendation

That

  1. Members note the report.

B. Supporting information

All data provided is included at Appendix 1.

1. An extensive review of rape is currently being undertaken by the MPS with the active involvement of MPA officers. The primary aims of this review are:

  •  To respond to the questions from the MPA commissioning brief on the increase into Reported Rape.
  • To outline the key current trends around Rape and Serious Sexual Offences using both MPS and third party data sets and to identify the driving factors underpinning this regarding victim, offender and location profiles.
  • To identify our most prolific offenders, most repeatedly targeted victims and most frequently targeted locations, to assist effective targeting of available resources.
  • To identify and outline prioritised recommendations & key intelligence gaps for progression in the next financial year. This is with a view to informing a cross business group action plan for progression into the next financial year.
  •  To inform the MPS Strategic Intelligence Assessment.

2. This review will report its findings to the MPA BMG in March 2010. Terms of Reference are attached at Appendix 2 (exempt).

The volume of serious sexual offences recorded

3. In the 12 months to October 2010, all serious sexual offences in London have increased from 6743 to 7838 crimes the previous year, being a 16.2 % increase, of which SCD2 has investigated 3326 crimes. Of these, the total number of recorded rape offences for the MPS was 3123, being a 32.1% increase and 759 more offences than in the previous 12 months. SCD2 has investigated 2717 rapes and a further 276 less serious sexual offences where this was assessed by SCD2 as being the most appropriate course of action.

4. SCD2 and SCD5 reached an interim agreement in April 2010 whereby more child-on-child sexual offences would be investigated by SCD5 than strictly fit with their ‘familial’ remit, to include cases where all the parties are under 10 years old or where they are in an established relationship, but excludes stranger offences. The extent and validity of this arrangement is currently under review to ensure that the best interests of the child are served by case allocation decisions.

5. Whilst the long term aim is to reduce rape and sexual offences in London, it is understood that these offences are significantly under reported, so we continue to encourage every victim to come forward and report to police. The changes in centralised crime recording practices, improved supervision of initial reports, missing person debriefs and comprehensive completion of domestic violence risk assessment forms (124D), all produce increased recorded rape offences. These are reflected in a 40% fall in the ‘No crime’ rates for rape which have fallen from 27% (521) in the 12 months to October 2009, to 11% (302) in the 12 months to October 2010 and were 7.5% for the month of September 2010. The ‘Crime Related Incident’ rate has remained more stable, increasing from 12% to 18% of all allegations, which may reflect the increase in the number of third party reports now being recorded.

6. The latest British Crime Survey, widely acknowledged as the most accurate measure of rape due to significant under reporting to police, has shown no change in the prevalence of sexual assaults over the previous year and a reduction since 2004/5. 0.1% of men and 0.4% of women recorded that they had been seriously sexually assaulted, but only 11% of them had reported to the Police.

7. The MPS has undertaken broad reviews into the statistical relationship between reported rape and actual offending and will continue to do so, but there is no definitive answer to the question of when or whether increased reporting should be of concern to public safety, or be a positive indication of confidence in policing. Current data supports MPS analysis that increased rape reports are partly due to more victims being encouraged to come forward and partly due to greater compliance with crime recording standards and fewer reports classified as ‘no crime’, rather than any significant increase in offences in London and that this is reflected nationally.

Reporting methods

8. The MPS and Havens have made it easier to report rape in London and undertaken awareness activity to encourage reporting. We work in partnership with others, raising awareness and opportunities to report and this has seen a 35% increase in offences reported through third parties in the last 10 months, over the previous 12 months.

9. The recent MPS campaign to highlight domestic violence (DV), encourage intervention and reporting, is believed to have had an impact on sexual offence reporting within DV allegations. This is shown in data on the method of reporting whereby the percentage of serious sexual offence reports recorded as ‘initiated by Police’ has increased from 0% in 2005/6 to 2.7% 2009/10.

Relationship types

10. Within the 31.2% increase in overall rape reports, the most significant increase in Rape offences by reported relationship type is within intimate and acquaintance relationships. The increases for stranger 1 rape are 10% and stranger 2, 16%.

11. Multiple perpetrator, or group, rape has increased by 91 offences in the last 12 months to 388 crimes, being 5% of all recorded rapes. Analysis of victim and suspect demographics indicates that group offending is still more prevalent within the youth population of 10 to 19yrs. The picture with regards to ethnicity also replicates largely what is reported across all sexual offending, in that there is a disproportionate volume of black suspects linked to group offending compared to other ethnicities and the disproportionality of black suspects and victims is even more prominent when looking at youth on youth offences. The vast majority of victims that reported group offences over the last year were female (92.6%).

12. Of the relationship types within these group rapes, Stranger 2 is dominant at 37.9%, followed by Acquaintance/Friend at 29.2% and Stranger 1 at 18.2%, being a very different pattern from overall rape offences. It appears that in group offending there is more often some degree of contact between the suspects and the victim before the sexual assault.

Detections and prosecutions

13. Enhanced supervision and standards of investigation and forensic intervention have been adopted through consistent use of the CRIS Review and Actions pages to track progress of investigations and the new inclusion of forensic strategies which are now completed by Forensic examiners in each case.

14. The overall sanction detection (SD) rate is no longer a target for SCD2, which focuses on SD rates for Stranger crimes. However, the overall SD rate for all SCD2 offences in the 12 months 2009-10 was 16.1%, for Rape was 15.9%, and for less serious offences was 12.7%.

15. The Targets set for SD rates for 2010/11 are a 30% target for Stranger 1 and 20% for Stranger 2 crimes. Between April-September, SCD2 has achieved 22% and 19% respectively. Additional targets are to achieve 87% satisfaction from victims, secure 500 charges for rape and 120 additional charges, reduce rape prosecution attrition rates to 40% and reduce no crime rates to 7%. Good progress is being made on all.

16. The MPS has led on the creation of a working party across the London Criminal Justice Partnership, chaired by DAC Akers, to identify points of attrition and opportunities to improve case progression, victim confidence and reduce the time taken for cases to progress from ‘Report to Court’, acknowledging that the time taken deters victims from reporting and to engaging with criminal justice processes.

17. The new single rape charging centre established by CPS London in April 2010, means that dedicated SCD2 and SCD5 investigators now work with a small team of prosecutors, leading to more consistent and better decision making on rape prosecutions and a positive impact on attrition rates.

18. As at 8th October, 713 referrals have been made to the CPS London rape charging centre by SCD2 and SCD5 since April 2010, of which 227 have been deemed not for further action, 131 resulted in charges authorized and 305 await CPS decision.

19. Data on prosecutions for the rolling 12 months to June 2010 compared to June 2009, shows a 23% increase of 175 in the number of Rape prosecutions, totaling 921 prosecutions to June 2010.

20. A target has been set of reducing the attrition rate of rape prosecutions to the National average of 40%. In the 12 months to September 2009, the MPS performance on rape attrition was 55.7%. This had fallen to 50% in the 12 months to September 2010, with the month of September recording a rate of 43.2%.

21. Of the unsuccessful prosecutions, 136 were recorded as due to victim or witness related issues, compared to 167 failed prosecutions for these reasons in the previous 12 months. This is believed to be a positive reflection of the quality of support and information being provided to victims and witnesses by the dedicated SOIT officers and the quality of initial CPS charging decisions.

Borough variations in rape related data

22. There is significant variation between the volumes of rapes recorded and the numbers that are charged, ‘no crimed’ and ‘CRI’d’ across the SCD2 teams. Much of this reflects predicted crime volumes and local population and environmental factors, but where reported crime trends have varied significantly from those predicted, additional staff and supervisors have been allocated to help deliver a more consistent level of quality investigation and victim care across London.

23. Standards of no crime and CRI decisions are consistently applied by the crime management unit and have been tested by external audit. Variations in detections and failed prosecutions are closely monitored with consistent investigation supervision standards applied across the MPS and monthly meetings with the CPS to monitor cases awaiting decisions and cases proceeding through the Courts. Any variations which are statistically significant over the last 12 months, will be the subject of comment within the more detailed rape review.

Victim feedback

24. The forms being provided to victims of sexual violence were updated in April 2010 to make them simpler to complete and to concentrate on securing feedback for the MPS. The distribution of feedback forms is now encouraged on two occasions- when a case is charged and when a case is closed.

25. SOIT officers are now given a personal objective to distribute these forms and to record the number of forms issued. Awareness of the importance of providing them to victims and how to record when this is done has been impressed on SOITs and supervisors-compliance is increasing, as is the number of forms returned by victims.

26. In the 12 months to October 2009, 63 responses were received compared to 131 for the 12 months to October 2010, of which 56 were received in the most recent quarter. A compilation report of the last 12 months’ responses identifies that overall satisfaction levels have been high. 87% of respondents answered that they were completely or very satisfied with the way they were treated by the police initially dealing with them, 92% with the SOIT officer, 87% with the investigating officer and 93% with Haven staff. A substantial number of positive comments were made regarding the specialist support of SOIT officers and the general work of the police.

27. There is a theme to the negative comments received from victims over the last year which relate mainly to communication and being kept informed, and to being less satisfied with the services provided by the initial contact with police over the service subsequently provided by specialist officers. In particular police could do more to explain to victims why suspects were or were not charged. 75% of respondents reported that the police explained why a suspect was or was not charged, but just 54% were satisfied with the explanation given. This is an area for improvement which is being communicated to staff.

The Intelligence Unit

28. The Unit has been fully staffed since April 2010 and has completed 310 taskings for the operational teams in 6 months and is on budget. The published SOP has had a 6 month in-depth review to ensure working practices are aligned with the Cluster Teams' needs and the unit is providing value for money. Internal customer feedback forms are used and the overwhelming feedback is good.

29. The team has been very effective in locating and arresting hard to find suspects. Operation Celina resulted in the arrest of 12 of the OCU's highest risk wanted rape suspects. This led to the creation of Operation Rossana utilizing staff across the MPS, led by the SCD2 Intelligence Unit, resulting in the arrest of 84 wanted rape suspects over 18 weeks and the collation of a significant amount of new intelligence on offenders and crime patterns.

30. The Unit has further refined the ability to identify and action linked series of crimes, working closely with MIB and Boroughs through the Early Warning System, to identify patterns of sexually motivated crimes and escalating behaviour.

31. Effective working relationships have been progressed with the Public Carriage Office, Safer Travel at Night, The Havens and other partners to ensure the timely and accurate identification and sharing of relevant information.

32. A variety of systems have been put in place, and are being monitored to improve National Serious Crime Analysis Section submissions, the volume of which has increased over the last 12 months, although the timeliness of submissions remains a challenge. There have been no MPS specific notifications from SCAS in the last 12 months.

The cold case team

33. The Sapphire Cold Case Investigation Team reviews undetected rapes and serious sexual assaults. Since formation in 2003, the Cold Case Team has reviewed over 1209 cases resulting in 127 full DNA profiles for, as yet unknown offenders, being loaded onto the National DNA Database (NDNAD).

34. Since September 2009, 15 men have been charged and 1 cautioned with serious offences including 16 of rape, plus robbery, burglary and false imprisonment, some in linked series cases e.g. Op Rute, a linked series of Male rapes; Operation Zefa, a linked series of 12 historic rapes and Op Yuri, the abduction and buggery of young boys in the early 1980's in the Hackney area.

35. Eight matters presently await trial and notable convictions this year include: John McGlynn, convicted and sentenced to 15 years for breaking into the home of and tying up and raping an 88 year old woman in 1987. The trial was successful even though the victim had died in 1995. Kevin Walters was convicted and sentenced to 13 years for breaking into the home of a 41 year old woman in 1990, causing her severe injuries after attacking her with a lump of wood and raping her.

Community engagement

36. Since the advent of SCD2 a new community engagement strategy has been implemented. The strategy builds on existing links with internal police partnerships across business groups, statutory partners and criminal justice agencies. One new element of the strategy has been the establishment of the Sapphire Reference Group. The aim of this group is to provide for statutory and third sector agencies, with direct client contact, to give feedback to SCD2 on the services we deliver and to identify opportunities for improvement with specific communities and client groups. The group agreed to set “themed” events in 2010 as the best way to progress improvements for those individuals for whom learning disability, mental health, youth, domestic and honour based violence, and emerging communities, are of particular relevance.

37. These meetings have involved presentations to the MPS and partners from groups including RESPOND, Haven young persons workers, ROTA, ADVANCE and The Lambeth Schools Project. The meetings have informed the work of the SCD2 Partnership Team and developed training for SOIT Officers. A specific meeting to debate sexual assaults and reporting within gypsy and traveler communities has been arranged as a result of concerns raised in an earlier meeting.

The Havens Partnership

38. The 50/50 Partnership between the MPS and NHS London continues to set the standards for the provision of Sexual Assault Referral Centre (SARC) Services. The MPS and Havens are represented on the National SARC Steering Group and Chair the South Regional SARC Group, sharing good practice across England and Wales. Baroness Stern and Sara Payne have also cited the excellent work of the Havens in their recent reports.

39. The National Support Team visited all the Havens in June 2010 resulting in a positive report with specific mention of the high level of commitment from the MPS and MPA. Most recommendations from the report relate to the need for greater consistency between the 3 Havens, greater capacity to support victims of sexual violence, the need for clearer support from CDRPs for Independent Sexual Violence Advisors (ISVAs), acknowledging that SOITs often undertake both roles where ISVAs are lacking. There is strong support for the adoption of Specialist Commissioning across London which will assist in delivering other recommendations.
40. The Havens have successfully bid for Home Office and Department of Health grants to support more services for clients and establishing ISVA posts linked to SARCs. The first new ISVA is working to improve services for Sex Workers in Hackney, Newham and Tower Hamlets and is already supporting victims who have reported to police and NHS Clients. SCD2 and the Havens actively support the development of a National database of suspects who offend against sex workers after local success of the ‘Ugly Mugs’ project.

41. In order to publicise the 10th anniversary of the first Haven opening and to raise awareness of the service, the Havens commissioned an internet based video for November 2010 and the “Wake Up To Rape” Survey which examined attitudes towards sexual violence and consent. Marketing the results gained a great deal of media attention and sparked much debate. Independent research established that 29% of Londoners now know about the Havens because of the “Wake Up To Rape” report. In addition, the Havens worked in partnership with the GLA in an awareness campaign using posters and radio spots, targeting different client groups including men and women and a specific poster aimed at gay men was displayed in club wash rooms.

42. In order to develop links with Non-Government Organisations (NGOs) the Havens have created new positions on the Haven Strategic Board, the successful applicants were IMKAAN and Victim Support. There has also been wider NGO engagement with Sapphire and The Havens in developing the new Rape Crisis Service in West London.

Training

43. 387 officers and police staff have completed the SCD2 course since August 2009, plus 16 City and 2 British Transport Police officers where their organisations have in exchange provided central London accommodation and support for courses.

44. 50 SCD2 officers have been trained in specialist interviewing skills. SCD2 has run new SOIT refresher courses to support officers returning to this area of specialism and 5 regional SOIT development days during Sept-Nov 2010 to enhance their skills and support them in the workplace. SCD2 training staff have also delivered inputs to 140 Safer Schools Officers and staff, 136 front office staff, 45 safer neighbourhood staff, 55 public protection desk staff, 92 Met Specials, 220 new recruits, 45 SCD4 staff on the forensic foundation course response teams and 5 CPS lawyers.

Staffing levels

45. SCD2 was implemented in September 2009. In April 2010 additional officers and staff joined the Intelligence Unit and the OCU numbers totalled 360 officers and 45 staff. From September 2010, in response to the consistent and significant increase in reported crimes, an additional allocation of 117 officers was made to SCD2, 97 of the posts being taken from elsewhere in SCD. 58 of these officers have already started working in the Command, most as SOITs and Sergeants where recruitment was prioritized. The remaining 58 detectives with the relevant skills are actively being sought from across the MPS in the hope of full staffing by April 2011 and 25 SOITs have been selected to be trained between now and April 2010, providing sufficient numbers to fill current and projected vacancies to September 2011.

46. Whilst SCD2 continues to recruit, SCD1 teams have provided regular assistance with on-going cases and have accepted two of the more complex linked series of cases.

47. The decision by the Detective Rotation Board to allow experienced detectives to elect to join SCD2 or a TP Borough when moving on from specialist roles, has been welcomed, enabling SCD2 to recruit 11 officers so far, all with additional experience to add to the capability and capacity of the teams. Additionally, a successful external Detective recruitment campaign has selected 13 officers awaiting joining dates from January.

48. There are currently 9 officers on maternity leave and we are predicting there will be 9 on maternity leave in April 2011 and 2 on career breaks. Where staff give a clear intention to take extended maternity leave without pay, efforts are made to recruit a temporary replacement to their team. The OCU is currently doing well against the targets for sickness absence with 2.64 days cumulative sickness per officer against a target of 3.25 days and 2.08 days sickness against a target of 4.5 days for police staff. There are 6 members of staff on long term sickness absence who are actively supported by their managers. The OCU has 47 officers and 9 staff on flexible working patterns.

Reviews of SCD2

49. A review of 33 serious sexual assault Investigations was undertaken by the Serious Case Review Group, SCD20. This review considered SCD2 cases for compliance against SOPs and minimum standards of primary and secondary investigations. The report was shared with Commander Rodhouse of TP as it highlighted improvements which can be made regarding first response and initial investigations and supervision by TP officers. SCD2 has provided briefing slides for first response officers and supervisors, night duty Detective Inspectors and Superintendents. These have been circulated across TP and any failings identified are addressed daily with colleagues. The report also highlighted the good work of SOIT officers in particular, especially as they were often operating under considerable pressure.

50. The Strategy and Improvement Department review, published in April 2010, focused on the change program to create SCD2. Most recommendations relate to best practice for Project managers and have been adopted into guidance for future projects. Of particular impact and relevance to SCD2, was the staff survey which highlighted concerns over a perceived lack of resources and lack of time allowed for such a major corporate change, leaving many aspects of the project unfinished when the Command became operational in September 2009. In particular there was criticism of the speed at which accommodation and resources for the new OCU were delivered and the recruitment processes which meant SCD2 has continued to rely to some extent, on staff on 6 month attachments during the first year of operation. The response rate for this survey was high and the feedback impactive. As a result, it is intended to re-run this survey in April 2011 to assess further change in the light of permanent and increased staffing and accommodation.

51. The ACPO Rape Support Team visited SCD2 in May 2010 as part of a national inspection and reported to ACPO Rape Working Group in July. The work of the MPS was not highlighted within the national report.

52. HMIC and HMICPS are completing a brief inspection in November 2010 centered on rape suspects as managed by SCD2 operating in Newham Borough. The MPS is one of 6 Forces who have volunteered to be inspected.

Media Coverage

53. During the last year, there has been limited proactive media cover sought for SCD2 Sapphire whilst resilience was built, other than through the Havens or Safer Transport Command to help encourage reporting and improve safety. This winter’s safer transport poster campaign has had the full involvement of SCD2 after negative feedback from victim groups about the hard hitting cab posters previously used.

54. The one year anniversary of SCD2 was marked by the release on 10th October of a TV Documentary on the Worboys investigation and subsequent improvements by the MPS, a briefing to the Crime Reporters Association on 14th October and a pre-recorded piece on BBC Radio 4 Today Program.

55. Media interest remains high on the subject of rape and failed MPS cases in particular. On going disciplinary and IPCC cases are expected to gain press coverage but it is hoped to identify the positive impact of changes introduced by SCD2 within the information provided to journalists covering historic matters.

C. Other organisational and community implications

Equality and Diversity Implications

1. Previous reports have identified that the majority of reports of serious sexual offence in London are from women (96%) with an over representation of black (20.6 %) and Asian (10%) victims, an under representation of white victims (57.8%) and an over representation of 18-29 year old victims (39.3%). These statements have all become slightly more pronounced over the last 12 months of reporting. From British Crime Survey data, it is acknowledged that all sexual offending is under reported by as much as 80%.

2. SCD2 supports the MPS Diversity and Equality Strategy by developing strategies to ensure we reflect the needs of London’s diverse communities.

3. The SCD2 rape reference group concentrates on those key themes impacting disproportionately on vulnerable groups including learning disabilities and mental health, by creating a membership from relevant partner agencies and voluntary groups in order to gain their help to tailor our policing response appropriately and to challenge perceptions and accepted practices.

4. In order to support both internal and external diversity objectives, SCD2 have created a Diversity Forum ‘To promote the MPS diversity strategy by continually enhancing SCD2’s response to serious sexual violence by supporting the diverse needs of its staff and victims’. The action plan reflects both internal and external considerations of the 9 protected characteristics e.g. the LGBT strand group looks at recruitment and retention of staff as well as engaging more effectively with these hard to reach groups and to address under reporting of same sex abuse. Additionally, a specific individual leads on under reporting across all the protected characteristics. Expressed an interest to become part of the equality and diversity forum. This is a reflection of the importance attached to diversity across the Command.

5. The rape reference Group provides a forum for conducting equality impact assessments on the relevant policies and functions of the Command.

6. The Continuous Improvement Team is realigning roles to facilitate the new requirements of Specialist Commissioning for Haven services and to provide clear links to partner agencies including Victim Support Service (VSS), Rape and Sexual Abuse Support Centre (RASAC) and Rape Crisis. The team will support a forthcoming VSS conference and is evaluating how VSS can assist in the delivery and completion of Victim Feedback Forms.

Delivery of Met Forward

7. Met Specialist: SCD2 has enhanced the specialist knowledge and skill levels of staff working in the field of serious sexual offences, created a new team able to provide reactive operational intelligence support, has further professionalized the role of SOIT officers, created senior managers able to represent London’s victims of sexual violence and impact on the partnership approach to reducing Violence against Women.

Financial Implications

8. The costs associated with the activities set out above are covered by existing budgets.

9. The majority of the 117 officers mentioned in paragraph 45 will be found by moving posts from other SCD units (internal re-allocation) and the balance is the subject of a growth Bid for £1.2m included in the draft Policing London Business Plan (20 Officers) proposals which will be subject to approval by the Authority as part of the 2011-14 budget process.

Legal Implications

10. There are no direct legal implications arising from this report which is presented for information only.

Environmental Implications

11. As this is an update report, there are no specific environmental implications as a result of the information conveyed in this report.

Risk Implications

12. SCD2 Sapphire has developed a Risk Register to assist in identifying and managing a wide range of operational and organizational risks relevant to this area of policing activity. SCD2 Sapphire is acknowledged as a high volume and high risk area of activity. Each investigation has risk assessment at the heart of the report and risks are re-assessed at each supervision interval. Each crime report is risk assessed by the Intelligence Unit and any additional risk management activity is considered and actioned by a Superintendent at the daily management meeting and may be escalated to the attention of ACPO or Borough colleagues as appropriate.

D. Background papers

None

D. Contact details

Report author: DCS Caroline Bates, MPA

For information contact:

MPA general: 020 7202 0202
Media enquiries: 020 7202 0217/18

Glossary

Victim / suspect relationship definitions attributed to rape and serious sexual offences for MPS analytical purposes:

Stranger 1 - Where the offender has no prior contact with the victim or where there are only brief comments/questions between victim and suspect.

Stranger 2 - Victim and suspect are briefly known to one another, for example they had met at a party, on the internet, a club or bar, in a minicab, or client/prostitute relationship.

Intimate - The suspect and victim are having or previously had a consensual sexual relationship.

Acquaintance/friend - Someone the victim has known for a period of time

Familial - Non-intimate family members and partners, honorary family members/friends.

Professional and Carer - Doctors, teachers, police officers, babysitters.

Group rape - Any offence committed against a victim by two or more perpetrators.

Series rape - Two or more allegations committed by the same person.

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