CHRISTA ACKROYD Police must get their own house in order to win trust of women

THERE are many depressing elements to the Russell Brand allegations about which which I have no intention of giving my opinion. I will leave that until all investigations are concluded. I too do not believe in the court of public opinion. I have never met the man nor indeed met anyone who has. I don’t like his brand of humour and have always seen him as an unfunny so-called ‘entertainer’ turned self-styled guru who has hidden behind a cloak of fake intellectualism and who has believed by using long words we would be impressed. I never have been.

My views on the kind of comedy where any subject is fair game in the name of free speech can best be summed up in a conversation with a friend this week after the allegations, which Brand vehemently denies, became public. “So we ban Les Dawson’s mother-in-law jokes or broadcast them with a warning that they were from a different era but jokes about rape and killing a woman or choking someone during sex until their mascara runs are deemed acceptable. What kind of a world are we are living in?” she added. I had to agree.

Brand has his supporters. In fact, he has a lot of supporters who are still supporting him after the Despatches and Sunday Times brought the allegations of four women into the public domain two weeks ago. And a lot of them are women too. They have flooded various social media platforms with talk of a witch hunt, of trial by media and to expound conspiracy theories that the establishment are out to get him. And to tell him they are right behind him.

But one phrase has been so often repeated that I feel I must address it while putting the allegations completely to one side. And it is this: Why don’t women just go to the police? In other words, as one woman put it, “If alleged victims make a documentary before going to the police then something is seriously wrong”. And she was using the argument against the accusers, not in support of them.

She is right. There is something seriously wrong. And what exactly is wrong is can be best answered if we ask ourselves one simple question. If you were the victim of a rape or sexual assault or even harassment would you go to the police? I suspect for many of us, sadly, the answer would be no. In fact, I know so. When Deputy Chief Constable Maggie Blyth, the National Police Chiefs’ Council co-ordinator for Violence against Women and Girls, says “I think trust from women and girls…has been lost in policing” we are getting somewhere nearer to understanding why so many women don’t come forward. It doesn’t mean their allegations are all untrue. It just means they do not trust the police to investigate. And who can blame them?

Let us take the most serious sexual offence committed against women (and yes, against some men too), rape. Last year in England and Wales 67,169 rapes were reported to police. By the end of 2022 there had been charges made in less than two per cent of all cases. According to the Government’s own Office for National Statistics 16.6 per cent of adults aged 16 years and over (7.9 million) will experience sexual assault over the age of 16. 1.9 million have been the victims of rape which accounts for 7.7 per cent of women and 0.2 per cent of men. On average, even if someone is charged, it will take two years to come to court, which means there are currently 9,000 rape cases, according to Rape Crisis UK using police and Home Office data, waiting to be heard.

In other words, Rape Crisis believes around 800,000 women are raped or sexually assaulted every year and most won’t report it. In fact, five out of six. Why? According to the same research 40 per cent of women said they were too embarrassed. Thirty-four per cent said it would be humiliating and 38 per cent said they didn’t think the police would help them. And who can blame them? The Met Police are already in special measures and are investigating or re-investigating some 1,600 historic complaints about serving officers’ behaviour towards women prompted by a review following the murder of Sarah Everard by police officer Wayne Couzens, who was part of a WhatsApp group which led to two other police officers being found guilty of sharing grossly racist, sexist and misogynistic texts to the platform. Then there was the passing around of images of murdered sisters of Nicole Smallman and Bibaa Henry on another sickening police chat. And yet another this year which included messages applauding violence against women. One police constable was jailed only last month for rape despite allegations being made against him 13 years previously. And, of course, the horrific case of David Carrick who admitted 85 serious offences during a 17 years of violence against women including 48 rapes because he believed he was ‘untouchable.’ Need I go on?

And don’t think it’s just the Met. At least 750 allegations of sexual misconduct were made against serving police officers across Britain over a five-year period and those figures were taken from a year ago. Nicole Jacobs, the Domestic Abuse Commissioner, commented that victims and survivors “need to see that robust action is taken by police as confidence remains at an all time low”. And then you wonder why women don’t come forward to the law enforcers.

The vast majority of police officers, fortunately a third of them now women, will be just as horrified at the figures and cases I have outlined. But as we all know, it only takes a few bad apples to make the whole barrel appear rotten. Whistleblowers within the organisations set up to uphold the law must be listened to and officers suspected of wrongdoing suspended, not shunted to other departments while they are investigated. Then we might feel able to trust them to investigate crimes against women.

As for the media, I will stick up for my profession. Without the media and dogged journalism, Harvey Weinstein and Jeffery Epstein would never have been brought to justice. Jimmy Savile would never have been unveiled as the vile perpetrator of sexual crimes he was. We are certainly not part of a government plot, or I must have missed something all these years.

As I have said, I do not believe in the court of public opinion. I do believe that the courts of law are the right place to hear such cases, and when they get there 75 per cent lead to convictions.

But until trust in the police is repaired, until women are not made to feel it’s all their fault, can we really blame them for staying silent or waiting years before they speak out?

As for the commentator on social media this week who suggested the #metoo movement is a thing of the past, or it should be, if only it was. If only there was no need for it. Then we will have made the progress we as women are constantly being promised.