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Today in Focus

Operation Soteria: a new approach to investigating rape

Today in Focus

The Guardian

Daily News, News

4.65.7K Ratings

🗓️ 24 October 2022

⏱️ 28 minutes

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

What can be done to improve rape conviction rates in Britain? Alexandra Topping reports on the police forces trialling a way of investigating rape and sexual assault cases. Help support our independent journalism at theguardian.com/infocus

Transcript

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0:00.0

This is the Guardian.

0:11.0

Today we meet the police officers

0:13.0

trialing a new way of investigating rape.

0:16.0

If this is a sensitive issue for you,

0:19.0

please take care when you're listening.

0:36.0

It's 8am and my colleague Lexie Topping and I

0:39.0

are being led through a police station

0:41.0

in Bridgewater in Somerset.

0:43.0

In the atrium of this vast glass and steel space,

0:47.0

uniformed officers walk past us on their way out to patrol

0:51.0

and plain clothes detectives huddle around the desks,

0:54.0

discussing the cases they're working on.

0:57.0

Sadly, a couple incidents of rape

1:00.0

one within the Bluestone pilot area

1:02.0

which we'll go into talk about in a little bit more detail in a minute.

1:05.0

In this office, there's a specialist team

1:08.0

investigating rape and serious sexual offences,

1:12.0

crimes which devastate people's lives

1:14.0

and which so often go unpunished.

1:17.0

At the moment, fewer than 2% of reported rapes

1:20.0

end up with someone being charged.

1:23.0

The police know they've been failing too many survivors

...

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