Scale of violence against women and girls in the six months after Sarah Everard murder revealed as 340 rapes or sex assaults were recorded every day

The scale of violence against females has been revealed with new Home Office figures which show that almost 340 rapes or sexual assaults of women and girls were recorded every day in the six months following Sarah Everard’s murder.

Figures for police force areas in England and Wales are from between April and September 2021, and show 34,608 rape offences and 36,265 sexual assaults were recorded by forces across the two nations, of which 31,194 (90 per cent) and 30,631 (84 per cent) respectively involved female victims, both adults and children.

That equates to 338 reports from female victims every day on average (170 rapes and 167 sexual assaults), and 49 from males.

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Of these, the region’s four forces - Humberside Police, North Yorkshire Police, South Yorkshire Police and West Yorkshire Police - between them saw 3,102 reports of rape against women and girls listed for April to September 2021 and 2,788 reports of sexual assault against women and girls for the same period.

The scale of violence against females has been revealed with new Home Office figures which show that almost 340 rapes or sexual assaults of women and girls were recorded every day in the six months following Sarah Everard’s murder.The scale of violence against females has been revealed with new Home Office figures which show that almost 340 rapes or sexual assaults of women and girls were recorded every day in the six months following Sarah Everard’s murder.
The scale of violence against females has been revealed with new Home Office figures which show that almost 340 rapes or sexual assaults of women and girls were recorded every day in the six months following Sarah Everard’s murder.

In both data sets, West Yorkshire Police by far had the highest numbers - but is the only force out of the four that is not below the national average for rape charge rates in this time period.

The statistics follow a period which saw anger, protests and renewed efforts from women’s safety campaigners following the abduction, rape and murder of York woman Ms Everard, 33, by serving Metropolitan Police officer Wayne Couzens in March 2021. This past weekend marked a year since vigils in her memory were held across the country.

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For the same time period 577 sexual assaults were reported to Humberside Police, 402 to North Yorkshire Police, 783 to South Yorkshire Police and 1523 to West Yorkshire Police. Of these 489, 339, 664 and 1296 were female victims respectively.

Vigils, like the one in Leeds city centre were held up and down the country following the murder of Sarah Everard in March last year.Vigils, like the one in Leeds city centre were held up and down the country following the murder of Sarah Everard in March last year.
Vigils, like the one in Leeds city centre were held up and down the country following the murder of Sarah Everard in March last year.
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Further figures from The Home Office show rape charges made were Humberside Police (14), North Yorkshire Police (13), South Yorkshire Police (26) and West Yorkshire Police (134).

Cases closed without outcome were Humberside Police (266), North Yorkshire Police (163), South Yorkshire Police (418), West Yorkshire Police (745).

A South Yorkshire Police spokesperson said: “Sexual offences have a devastating impact on the victim both in the short term immediately following an attack and then in the weeks, months and years that follow as they attempt to move on with their lives.

“Rape investigations are notoriously challenging and complex. We are working extremely hard with criminal justice partners and commissioned services including the Crown Prosecution Service, the Sexual Assault Referral Centre and Independent Sexual Violence Advocates (ISVA) in order to provide the best possible support and service to victims, recover evidence and maximise opportunities to bring offenders to justice.

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“We recognise that for victims reporting rape or other serious sexual offences may be one of the hardest things they have ever had to do. We want to reassure those victims that if and when they are ready to speak to us, they will be treated sensitively and with compassion by investigators committed to meeting their needs and targeting the perpetrators of this most heinous crime."

West Yorkshire Police, with the Mayor of West Yorkshire Tracy Brabin is making violence against women and girls a key priority as laid out in Ms Brabin's first Police and Crime Plan published last week. Det Supt Lee Berry from West Yorkshire’s Safeguarding Central Governance Unit, added: "We work closely with the CPS who ultimately make the charging decisions and strive to ensure preparators are brought to justice.

“In line with the force’s priority to tackle violence against women and girls, we will continue to treat rape offences extremely seriously, to achieve the best possible outcome for each victim."

Humberside Police's Head of our Protecting Vulnerable People Unit, Det Supt Laura Koscikiewicz told The Yorkshire Post that the force had made significant improvement with how it investigates and support victims over the last 18 months.

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She added: "I am pleased to share that as a force we now rank ninth nationally in relation to positive outcomes for rape and serious sexual offences and we continue to work hard to learn lessons and improve our investigations in an attempt to achieve even more positive outcomes. Since September 1 2021, we have had charges authorised for 156 rape and sexual offences which is an outcome of 10.4 per cent with 22 charges brought this year already for rape and serious sexual assaults."

North Yorkshire Police added: "We appreciate that telling the police what has happened takes great courage. Everyone who reports a rape or sexual assault to North Yorkshire Police is given support from a specially-trained officer. We also work very closely with other organisations to ensure victims receive the highest level of practical and emotional help.

“Rape is an extremely serious offence, and can be very complex to investigate. We work closely with the Crown Prosecution Service to make sure that the cases we present to them are as strong as possible."