Hotline to report police sex abuse

POLICE are to set up a ‘hotline’ for members of the public to report officers if they sexually assault crime victims or suspects.

Chiefs have told forces they must make it easier for the public to make complaints about corrupt staff who abuse their power for sexual gain.

The allegations must also be treated as serious corruption and referred to the Independent Police Complaints Commission rather than being dismissed or dealt with by the suspect’s own bosses.

It comes after HM Inspectorate of Constabulary warned earlier this month that forces are not doing enough to prevent sexual abuse by officers, which it said ‘has a devastating effect on the lives of victims, and corrodes trust and confidence in the police’.

The Mail on Sunday told recently how a vulnerable woman complained that she had been sexually assaulted by a Police Community Support Officer from the Humberside force – but he was allowed to resign and no further action was taken against him.

The case was dropped by a colleague of his, Detective Chief Superintendent Colin Andrews, who was himself later jailed for stalking.

Nationally, research has found that allegations of abuse of power for sexual gain were made against 306 police officers, 20 PCSOs and eight civilian staff in the two years to March 2016, but the true scale of the problem is feared to be greater as those targeted are often vulnerable victims or suspects who never report their experiences.