Police to shake up rape-case tactics

POLICE chiefs have ordered the biggest-ever shake-up of rape investigation in Scotland amid growing concern about low conviction rates and avoidable trauma for victims.

Among the proposals are that rape investigations will have to be supervised by senior officers – Detective Inspector or higher – to ensure evidence is collected properly.

Scotland on Sunday can also reveal that, for the first time, police training on rape investigation will be standardised across all eight Scottish forces.

The most recent annual figures show that, of the 900 rapes recorded, only 39 resulted in a conviction. Experts estimate that only one in eight cases is actually reported which means that more than 7,200 attacks could be taking place annually, the equivalent of almost 20 rapes every day.

The overhaul of procedures, by the Association of Chief Police Officers Scotland (ACPOS), has been ordered because Scotland's 3.9% conviction rate for rape is the lowest in western Europe.

When she was Solicitor General, Elish Angiolini, now the Lord Advocate, ordered the Crown Office and Fiscal Service to look into the way they investigated allegations of rape and serious sexual assault.

Speaking last year, Angiolini said: "Rape is a horrendous crime, and no one should be in any doubt about the Crown's will to prosecute where there is sufficient evidence to do so.

"But we must remember that each case starts with one woman being brave enough to seek help and to report the crime committed against her"

A key problem ACPOS must deal with is the fact Scottish police forces have evolved their own methods for dealing with rape inquiries.

Some, such as Strathclyde Police, have a dedicated sex crimes unit with specially-trained officers to deal with allegations of assaults but others rely on regular CID officers to conduct interviews.

One senior police source told Scotland on Sunday that despite repeated attempts over the years to improve the treatment of victims, shocking lapses continued to occur.

These included:

• A lack of female police doctors to perform examinations. In one case, a woman had to wait over four hours before being seen.

• Many police stations still do not have suitable facilities where a victim can be interviewed.

• One prostitute claimed to have been "cross-examined" about her personal life before any statement was taken from her.

Under the proposals, officers will be issued with a special handbook advising them on how best to initially approach victims and preserve crime scenes.

It is also suggested that "early evidence kits" enabling forensic evidence to be kept without the need for a complainant to undergo an immediate full forensic examination, should be handed out.

Another plan is to introduce preliminary statements, allowing victims to give just a brief account of their ordeal to officers instead of the current policy which can see them spending hours recalling the incident straight away.

Isabelle Kerr, the manager of Rape Crisis Centre in Glasgow, said: "The review is a very good idea because simple things, like the first point of contact, are incredibly important for rape victims. If victims are treated well and are believed then it is probable that better evidence will be gathered because they will feel more at ease to be able to provide it.

"I welcome this move also because there are incidents which we have heard of where victims have not been allowed to go to the toilet or have a cup of tea until they have been examined. And this all adds to their trauma."

Commenting on the statistics for incidents of rape in Scotland, she said: "To be honest, I think the one-in-eight claim is conservative. I would estimate that around 40% of the 2,500 victims we see each year do not report their cases.

"The public still thinks rape is mainly about sex. It is not. It is about humiliation, violence and most importantly power."

Detective Chief Inspector Louise Raphael, of Strathclyde Police, chairs the Sexual Crime Working Group for ACPOS.

She admitted to rape crisis officials that, despite advances in the way allegations of rape are treated today, there was still much room for improvement.

Raphael said: "I have been in the police service 21 years now and it (the difference] is like night and day. I would like to think now that we deal with things in a much more professional manner than we ever did in the past."

She explained what the review hoped to achieve. "ACPOS has acknowledged there is a fair amount of work to be done. We need to ensure the officers who are predominantly dealing with these types of reports are sufficiently equipped to do so.

"It is such a unique crime type that the training involves more than it normally would. At the moment, there is perhaps a training void in terms of the national delivery. There are eight forces in Scotland and we all do things differently."

Lothian and Borders' Deputy Chief Constable Tom Halpin, is ACPOS' spokesman on Family Protection and Sexual Assault

He said: "We are in the process of conducting a wholesale review of the training provided to officers to ensure that the specialist skills required in respect of victim support as well as crime investigation are being adequately met.

"Ultimately, we are driving towards a… standardised approach to victim medical examinations, supervision of investigations and liaising with the Procurator Fiscal."

Reliving the nightmare

Sandra had intended getting a taxi home after her work's Christmas party. But the combination of several drinks too many and persuasive company convinced her a nightcap at her colleague's flat would be just fine.

Six hours later, she was stood at the front desk of a police station in Glasgow, dishevelled, sobbing and in shock.

Sandra had been raped by the man whose home she had visited with her friends. They left but she stayed after he promised to call her a cab – he never did. Instead, he attacked her before giving her £5 to get a cab home.

Her case was one of the 900 reported to police in Scotland during 2004/05 and her 'assailant' was among the 86 men prosecuted during that year. But he was also one of the 47 defendants who walked free from court after the jury returned a 'not guilty' verdict. His counsel had successfully argued that Sandra – not her real name – was drunk, had visited the flat willingly, stayed when her friends had left and had been wearing a revealing party dress that evening.

The jury's finding left the 29-year-old devastated. To this day, she finds it hard to reconcile what happened to her inside that flat with the result from the four-day trial.

She said: "I thought it would help. I thought seeing him convicted and made to pay for what he had done would allow me to get on with my life.

"Now, I feel like I have had to go through it twice, and for what? Nothing at all."

The facts

1996/97: Number of rapes reported – 469 Number of prosecutions – 35 Number of convictions – 35

2004/05: Number of rapes reported – 900 Number of prosecutions – 86 Number of convictions – 39

Current rape conviction rate for Scotland – 3.9%: the current rape conviction rate for Scotland is the lowest in Western Europe

2,500: the number of victims seen last year by Rape Crisis Scotland

10%: the average percentage of rape allegations in Scotland which reach the courts

7,200: the estimated number of attacks in Scotland each year – almost 20 every day