Sex offences and jumping through hoops

[MAD87]

I read this article this morning and wondered whether anything will ever change. It's well known that "minor" sex offences lead to more serious offences - indecent assault, rape, sometimes murder, as the journalist vcictim pointed out, but still the police drag their feet.
https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/cvgwp4059xgo

[Blaze]

It's long been known that today's flasher is tomorrow's rapist but still it's not taken seriously.
A journalist is more likely to be persistent that the average member of the public and most women would have given up at the start. It's a difficult enough decision to report any sort of sex offence and to be brushed off and even humiliated is bound to be why so many such offences go unreported.

What I find surprising is that she didn't go higher up - a letter to the Chief Constable (both Met and Lancashire) could have stirred things up, particularly if they know she's a journalist. She would surely have noted the name and number of the person who took her original statement - bosses don't like it when there's a risk of any complaint about one of their officers. It looks as if she made a lot of contact by email or perhaps phone - easy to be fobbed off.

We read horrific stories about women in other countries where misogyny is rife. Despite the sympathetic work carried out by many dedicated police officers in the UK (and elsewhere), it seems there is still a culture that does not take what starts as a minor sex crime seriously.

[niemeyjt]

Just another symptom of the dysfunctional two-tier UK policing at present in the UK.

There is in UK news at present a journalist in the UK being investigated by three forces over a non-crime - someone's hurt feelings off a twitter post.

I almost think there is a need for a total reset in Policing - how to achieve it is another matter. Firing woke Chief Constables and those appointed according to the boxes they tick might be a start. Sadly Yvette Cooper is not the right person to bring it about.

[Pathca]

She’s not being investigated by three forces, apparently it went to two other forces before Essex agreed to deal with it. The previous two forces are not involved

[hughnique]

It's long been known that today's flasher is tomorrow's rapist

A point I tried to raise with our mayor some 8 years ago, a person living in my village with his wife, with whom we were very friendly, indeed they were good mates, suddenly was revealed as a flasher. Needless to say that was the end of that friendship, evidently two women in our village were given a good old butchers at his manhood, on more than one occasion, sadly both have passed away now, but there were several more. The particular "man" was somewhat immature, to say the least, he used to be a driving instructor around the Romford area, however they moved here when they were both relatively young, mid 40's, which, retrospectively led me to believe it was a rather quick and possibly forced move, perhaps in order to escape a baseball bat round the back of his head. I say he was immature, he had a bevy of corny jokes and antics which were repeated on a regular basis, day in, day out, OK if you were an Alzheimer's sufferer. I remember one day he started rolling about on the grass outside our kitchen window, I mentioned to him that I had just cleared a large dogs turd from the area, to which he started licking the grass. One of the ladies involved said he was in the veranda outside her kitchen when he suddenly revealed himself saying look what "wife" done to me last night she shaved my pubic area, a quick glance by the victim proved it, and bearing in mind that her elderly husband was in the next room. So looking at Blaze's statement, this was our concern, and bearing in mind that possibly it was common knowledge that we were all chummy beforehand, I did not want the inevitable blame that I said nothing in the event of a repeat performance, and became tarred with the same brush.
Mayors reaction was well didn't seem to give a toss, he was on first name terms with them, so I told him let them get on with it.

[Blaze]

@hughnique Did anyone go to the Gendarmerie and insist on making a formal complaint ? Did anyone photograph or record this man ? How good is his knowledge of French ?
The Maire is not the person to approach in this sort of instance, but the Gendarmerie. If you want to make a formal complaint, you need to be very sure of your facts : dates, times, what was or wasn't done, how close were you to the perpetrator, location etc etc. The information should be first hand, not hearsay.

It's very easy to criticise the police for not doing anything but they need to have information in order to act (I'm talking in general terms here). Information may well be common knowledge among the public, but unless someone steps forward, the police won't necessarily know about it.

[Pathca]

In the UK you also also need to have good necessity criteria to arrest or the nice custody sergeant will decline to take the prisoner

[tagh]

Nasty, I agree. But was this guy also from Romford, how long has he been in France, is it a Romford problem?

[MAD87]

Men need to be taught from childhood that girls and women must be respected as much as their playground mates. Eventually, a police force might emerge which takes women seriously. I often heard men in the UK saying "she was asking ofr it" or some such nonsense.
I had one similar call in France very early on, but did nothing as I thought the bloke at the end of the line was just pathetic. Not very proactive, but I believed I'd left all that behind. Yes, journalists, especially any directly involved in such abuse, are better equipped to keep pushing.

[hughnique]

The first point I would make Blaze, is that it never happened to me or my wife, so any complaint would have to come from the associated parties, i.e. the two women affected in our village, both English as was the flasher. There seems to be a reluctance for women to step up and do the right thing, in fact our neighbour, one of the victims, was a deeply religious woman and as they say, turned the other cheek, after the event her husband, a lay preacher, invited the perpetrator and his spouse round for a barbecue, needless to say we declined, but that's the sort of crazy world some people live in. I was not in a position to give any times dates photographs, of what I can only assume, and it was several weeks after the event that I was informed of what occurred. As for his French, not good, he used to go to the daughter of a local vet, for French lessons however, according to him spent more time on the job than getting any French knowledge, he was welcome as she was a right soapy cow. My intention was to distance myself from him so as I was not involved in any witch hunt should a repeat performance or worse, come up. We did have mutual acquaintances, who I made sure were informed, so as not to leave him alone with any females, but that seemed to backfire, as I never heard from any of them afterwards, so god knows what bullshit he explained that away with. It seemed that a lot of associated people looked on it as some sort of party prank, I also think his wife was complicit in some way, if it was her with the cut throat razor shaving his nuts, last thing I would let my OH near with that in her hand.