Sarah Everard inquiry finds 'critical failure' in police handing of violence against women and girls
Police officers are unable to answer basic questions about sexual crimes against women, a report has found.
The Angiolini Inquiry, set up in the wake of the murder of Sarah Everard, found that too many perpetrators are slipping through the cracks and that prevention schemes are often “just words”.
In the latest report from the inquiry, looking at sex crimes against women in public places, Lady Elish Angiolini found that data on these offences is “difficult to obtain, patchy and incomplete”.
She also found that around a quarter, 26 per cent, of police forces in England and Wales have no specialist policy for investigating sexual offences, including non-contact crimes such as indecent exposure.
Lady Angiolini said: “What is of great concern to me, still, is that basic questions cannot be answered. No-one was able to confidently tell me how many women nationally report being the victim of sexually motivated crimes in public spaces.
“This gap in knowledge fundamentally impacted my ability to assess how effective current measures are at preventing these crimes.
“For example, we cannot answer basic questions such as ‘how many women were raped by strangers in public spaces, as opposed to someone known to them, in private spaces in England and Wales last year’, and there is limited data on sexual assault and indecent exposure.
“If this data is not being gathered and recorded consistently across forces, how can it be analysed to spot patterns in offending? This is a critical failure.”
Violence against women and girls has been classed as a national threat, but effective national action on prevention is not being taken, she concluded.
The report also recommended artificial intelligence (AI) should be used to help identify predatory men who can then be “activity managed”. It said data gathered from police operations should be harnessed together with AI to identify patterns in offending or behaviour and build a profile of offenders.
This work should be consistent, specifically used to gain a better understanding of why men commit sexual crimes, and followed up with targeted interventions to prevent offending, the report added.
Lady Angiolini added: “Too often prevention in this space remains just words - until this disparity is addressed, violence against women and girls cannot credibly be called a national priority.”
Everard, 33, was abducted, raped and murdered by the former armed Metropolitan Police officer Wayne Couzens in March 2021.
He had used his status as a police officer to trick Everard into thinking he could arrest her for breaking lockdown rules, as she walked home from a friend’s house in south London.
The Angiolini Inquiry was launched after her death to investigate how Couzens was able to carry out his crimes, and look at wider issues within policing and women’s safety.
Two more reports are expected next year. One will examine whether the same failures identified in the first phase could happen again.
The other will focus on the crimes of former Met Police officer David Carrick, who was unmasked as a serial rapist and is serving multiple life sentences.