There is a “critical failure” to answer basic questions about sex crimes against women including how many are raped by strangers each year, 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”.
Speaking to journalists as the report was published, she 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.”
She said that the focus should be on stopping perpetrators rather than changing women’s behaviour, and that data on offenders is “limited and disjointed”.
Lady Elish continued: “Too many perpetrators are slipping through the cracks in an overworked system; police, prison and probation resources are overstretched and underfunded.”
Violence against women and girls has been classed as a national threat, but effective national action on prevention is not being taken.
“Too often prevention in this space remains just words,” she said.
“Until this disparity is addressed, violence against women and girls cannot credibly be called a national priority.”
Funding is difficult to secure because of the lack of data to prove the success of prevention schemes, the report found, and there is an “unacceptable level of inconsistency across England and Wales.”
Ms 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 Ms 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 Ms Everard’s death to investigate how Couzens was able to carry out his crimes, and look at wider issues within policing and women’s safety.
Last year the first phase of the independent investigation published its findings into Couzens’ policing career and discovered he should never have been given a job as a police officer.
The inquiry found chances to stop the sexual predator were repeatedly ignored and missed, and Lady Elish warned without a radical overhaul of policing practices and culture, there is “nothing to stop another Couzens operating in plain sight”.
Ms Everard’s family said in response to the inquiry’s first report they believe she died because he was a police officer, adding: “She would never have got into a stranger’s car.”
After the harrowing killing of Ms Everard, it emerged there had been concerns about Couzens’ behaviour while he was a police officer, with reports he was nicknamed “the rapist”.
He joined Kent Police as a special constable in 2002, became an officer with the Civil Nuclear Constabulary in 2011 and then moved to the Met in 2018.
Couzens indecently exposed himself three times before the murder, including twice at a drive-through fast food restaurant in Kent in the days before the murder, but he was not caught.
It was also later revealed Couzens had been part of a WhatsApp group with fellow officers that shared disturbing racist, homophobic and misogynist remarks.
He was sentenced to a whole-life order for Ms Everard’s murder, meaning he will never be released from prison.
Responding to the inquiry’s findings, home secretary at the time James Cleverly announced any officer charged with the most serious offences will be automatically suspended from duty until an outcome is reached.
Police reforms to drive up standards are also under way under the current Government, including new rules for officers who commit gross misconduct or fail background checks to be automatically sacked.
Part two of the Angiolini Inquiry is also looking at whether there is a risk of issues from the first phase happening again, such as failures in police vetting, police culture and poor police investigation into reports of sexual offences.
The report is expected to be published next year.
A third phase of the inquiry will also consider the crimes of David Carrick – who also served in the Met’s Parliamentary and Diplomatic Protection Command and was handed 36 life sentences in 2023 after being unmasked as a serial rapist.
Earlier this month he was handed another life sentence for molesting a 12-year-old girl and raping a former partner.
