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Operation Soteria aims to address the catastrophic fall in rape convictions in recent years and improve the experience of victims who report to the police. The idea is that officers focus their investigation on the suspect, rather than the credibility of the victim.
“The suspect focus is about as early as is appropriate, as robustly as is appropriate, within the confines of the law, challenging behaviours of perpetrators,” says Det Ch Insp Richard Horsfall, who leads the team at Avon and Somerset police responsible for investigating rape cases. They are part of the group of 19 forces currently piloting the new approach.
“I can honestly say that we are looking at things differently,” says Horsfall. “Sometimes it won’t necessarily change the results but we are opening our eyes to some of the traps, maybe that we’d fallen into, some of the traps that CPS (Crown Prosecution Service) had fallen into”.
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Senior news reporter Alexandra Topping speaks to Hannah Moore about how effective the trial has been so far and how it changes the experience for victims.
- If you have been affected by anything you have heard in this podcast, you can talk to Rape Crisis on 0808 802 9999 (England and Wales) or 08088 01 03 02 (Scotland) or go to rapecrisis.org.uk. The Samaritans are available in the UK 24 hours a day on 116 123 or at www.samaritans.org
Photograph: Sam Frost/The Guardian
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