THE hard work and commitment by Essex Police’s Crime and Public Protection Command has resulted in an increase in solved outcomes for rape and sexual offences.

Recent data showed that in the last 12 months, Essex Police has achieved a solved outcome for 103 rape offences, a 66% increase from the previous year.

In the last eight months, 12 investigations lead by our Crime and Public Protection team have resulted in dangerous offenders being jailed for a total of 182 years.

Figures for Harlow

Between March 2022 and March 2023, there were 156 rapes in Harlow. The figures state that 8 were solved.

The year before there were 163 rapes in Harlow and of those, five were solved.

Detective Superintendent Neil Pudney KPM said “I am so proud of the work that Crime and Public Protection do and the level of service that we provide to vulnerable victims across Essex and beyond.

“We work closely with the Crown Prosecution Service and our support agencies including Synergy who provide support and guidance to survivors of sexual abuse who have found the strength to share what has happened to them.

“Not only do we monitor these statistics to look at what we can improve but we seek out direct feedback from survivors of sexual abuse. This week we held a Victim Feedback Panel where several survivors bravely shared their experiences to our officers and partners so that we can improve the service we provide.”

In addition to this, the preventative work by C&PP has resulted in a reduction in rape and sexual offences.

D/Supt Pudney added “The common view of the police is that we’re there to solve crime and support victims. Whilst that’s absolutely true, we have a number of proactive teams within the force to monitor potential perpetrators and prevent them causing harm to potential victims. Our Child Sexual Exploitation Proactive Investigation Team and our Management of Sexual Offenders and Violent Offenders (MOSOVO) work with our partner agencies to identify concerning behaviour from individuals and put orders in place to protect those at risk.

“These teams also monitor individuals who are out of prison on license or may be subject to a specific prevention order, to ensure they are complying. If they are not, then we act quickly to protect potential victims.

“Whilst these results speak volumes, the victims in these cases are more to us than just a statistic. I can assure anyone who is surviving  domestic abuse or sexual abuse that we will take your report seriously and no stone will be left unturned to get you your justice.

“I understand that these are extremely emotive crimes and not everyone feels in the position to report yet. If this is the case, you can receive support from one of our fantastic support services without involving the police if you’re not ready.”

Synergy Essex provides support and guidance for survivors of sexual and sexual abuse across Essex.

The Essex Rape Crisis Partnership is formed of three organisations:

• CARA (Centre for Action on Rape and Abuse) who cover mid and north Essex.
• SERICC (Rape and Sexual Abuse Specialist Service) who cover South and West Essex.
• SOS Rape Crisis who cover Southend, Castle Point and Rochford.

Survivors can self-refer and receive emotional support, specialist sexual violence and abuse counselling and or specialist advocacy services, no matter when the sexual violence or abuse occurred. In addition to this, they also offer support to survivor’s loved ones.