Of all the crimes faced by Northamptonshire Police, rape and serious sexual assaults are among the hardest to investigate.
“Every case is tricky,” said Detective Inspector Helen Knight. “Mostly the offence happens when two people are on their own. So it is often one person’s word against somebody else’s.
“But you have to look for the evidence. The starting point is we always initially believe the victim and we go from there.”
While the most chilling type of sexual assault remains “stranger rape”, women – and indeed men – are far more likely to be attacked by people they know and in places they are familiar with.
Victims nearly always know their attackers.
DI Knight said: “The majority of offences are with an offender who the victim has known for at least the last few hours, if not for their lifetime, and it is often in the victim’s own home or the offender’s own home and rarely does the victim end up with significant physical injury.”
Alcohol is often a significant problem. Too often, DI Knight said, men find themselves accused of rape because they do not know when “no means no” or when a woman is perhaps unable to say yes.
“If the girl is too drunk and can’t say yes then the answer is no and it could be considered rape,” she warned.
She said that view was increasingly being shared by courts and the Crown Prosecution Service (CPS).
It is something boys in schools are now taught. Previously the crime prevention messages have been directed at women, with warnings about getting into cars with strangers.
Now, backed by Government campaigns, boys and men are the target for the warnings. The system, she said, is much more set up to support victims of rape than it used to be. The other significant portion of rape investigations involves “historic” allegations, sometimes dating back decades.
Again, the starting point from the police is to believe the victim. Investigations can be complicated and often rely on supporting witnesses. Sometimes facts, such as holiday dates and times from years gone by, have to be checked and stories corroborated.
DI Knight said: “For us to get a conviction from those we rely on other people giving evidence in support.
“The courts are taking a lot more care and consideration to these cases now and recognising that if more than one person is saying it, then why would they be making it up?”
Victims urged to call Serenity
A detective who specialises in the investigation of rape and serious sexual assaults has urged victims to contact the Serenity Centre in Northampton if they do not want to come to the police directly.
Serenity, the county’s Sexual Assault Referral Centre, offers victims help and advice. Police are brought in only if the victim asks for them to be.
Detective Inspector Helen Knight said: “They are the right people, they are not the police, and even if the victim doesn’t want to involve the police they can offer the right support.
“If we are called in we will try to understand what they have gone through and if they want us to investigate we will look to get the best evidence we can.”
Reports of sexual assaults have increased across Northamptonshire over the past few years. It is something DI Knight sees as a positive sign.
She said: “If people are telling us more then we see it as a positive thing that people have more confidence in how we will deal with it. A lot of that is down to historic offences.
“We often get people who come to us who have been abused as children and come to us later in life. Sometimes they have a trigger, such as having their own children or following the death of their mother, and perhaps then they feel confident enough to come forward.”
To contact Serenity, call Northampton 601713.
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