Kentish Gazette Canterbury & District
One rape victim every week
Shocking statistic revealed the week of ‘heinous’ crime on city campus Exclusive
One rape a week is reported to police in Canterbury, according to figures uncovered by the Kentish Gazette.
In a period between December 2014 and December 2016, the force received 103 rape reports across the city.
The statistics are revealed just days after a rape on the University of Kent campus.
Police sealed off an area of woodland just off University Road after the assault in the early hours of Friday.
The senior investigating officer has described the attack on a young woman as a “distressing and heinous crime”.
But Ch Insp Mark Weller, the district commander for Canterbury and Dover, says socalled stranger rapes, where the attacker is not known to the victim, are still incredibly rare.
He said: “In the majority of reported rapes the offender is known to the victim. A significant proportion of these reports of rape will relate to historic offences.
“All serious sexual offences are cause for concern and are taken extremely seriously, and the pursuit of offenders is a top priority for Kent Police.
“The reporting of rape has increased as a result of highprofile stories in the media that have raised awareness and bettered people’s understanding of what constitutes the offence.
“Victims feel more confident in reporting rape and this is reflected in the figures both in Canterbury and nationally.”
Using Freedom of Information laws, the Gazette discovered most rapes were reported in south Canterbury’s Barton ward, while the fewest were recorded in St Stephen’s.
Debbie Cadman, a counsellor at the East Kent Rape Crisis Centre in Canterbury, says the police figures broadly reflect the level of requests for its services.
She said: “The number of rapes being reported is going up, but it’s difficult to say whether this is an actual increase or whether it is because people feel more comfortable reporting rapes.
“The authorities are more empathetic and people feel they will be believed and well-treated.
“When people come to us they get very nervous. They think they have to give us all the details of what happened to them. They don’t.
“Making people go through the memory of what happened is making them relive it, retraumatising them.
“We don’t focus on the details, we focus on the effect of what has happened.
“You have to remember that people don’t think this will happen to them, but when it does it’s like a bomb has gone off in their lives.”
Visit www.ekrcc.org.uk for more information about the East Kent Rape Crisis Centre. Visit www.kent.police.uk for the police’s safety advice.