Several rape cases have been re-opened after serious failings saw them wrongly discarded as “no-crimes” by Cheshire Police.
Some victims were not taken seriously due to alcohol and mental health issues – leading to some allegations not even being recorded as crimes, a report by Her Majesty’s Inspectorate of Constabulary (HMIC) reveals.
The news comes as it is revealed Cheshire Constabulary is the third worst force in England and Wales for recording crimes - with 31.1 per cent being left unrecorded.
The HMIC report reveals that 14 out of 30 rape allegations were wrongly labelled as “no-crimes” – incidents initially recorded as a crime but then found not to be.
And, at times, specialist officers used their opinion rather than verifiable information to decide whether to drop a rape investigation, the report reveals.
Urgent action has been called for by the HMIC, which described its findings as a ‘significant cause for concern’ and a ‘matter of material and urgent importance’.
Cheshire Constabulary has now reopened all rape investigations classed as ‘no crimes’ between November 2012 and October 2013 – and has extended its investigations to include the 12 months prior to that period.
Assistant chief constable Guy Hindle confirmed that rapes which had been classed as “no crimes” had been re-opened by specialist officers to check that all lines of investigation had been followed.
He admitted that mistakes had been made saying the force “accepts entirely” that in some rape cases officers had brought personal opinion into investigations. Crimes had been failed to be recorded or recorded incorrectly both by officers on the beat and call centre workers, he said.
Cheshire East Council leader Michael Jones, who last week wrote to the chief constable in the wake of the Rotherham child abuse scandal asking for ‘absolute reassurance that we are doing everything we can in Cheshire East to protect our vulnerable children’, said he is shocked by the findings of the HMIC report.
He said: “I want further reassurances in light of the HMIC report and I think the public needs to be given a very clear explanation (by the police) of what’s going on.”
Carolyn Glancy, a sexual violence advisor at the Rape and Sexual Abuse Support Centre for Cheshire and Merseyside, said: “We don’t have experience of crimes not being recorded because the victims who come to us have been referred by the police or hospital so their case is being investigated.
“But we can say that if this is going on it’s extremely disappointing because every person who comes forward and makes a complaint should be listened to and the crime fully investigated.
“It takes a massive amount of courage for victims to come forward and being acknowledged and believed is a really important part of the process for them. It can be devastating if they are not listened to.”
The HMIC Crime Data Integrity report reveals a series of failings the force made when recording crimes between November 1, 2012, and October 31, 2013.
Inspectors found that 31.1pc of reported crimes were not recorded by Cheshire police during their inspection of 43 forces across England and Wales. This ranks the force as the third worse in the country for recording crime – falling in behind Greater Manchester (31.7pc) and West Yorkshire Police (32.1pc). The report also revealed that out of 90 crimes that should have been recorded just 62 were – four of which were wrongly classified, while 19 crimes were recorded outside the 72-hour time limit, the report states.
Cheshire Constabulary incorrectly labelled 42 out of 71 robberies, rapes and violent offences as “no crimes”.
