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UK
The horror of the 5,000 children under
16 raped every year
Extraordinary figures showing the extent of the rape
of children under 16 are revealed today. They reveal the number of
victims is nearly 5,000 a year - yet only 7 per cent of the attackers
are convicted. It is the first time the Home Office has released such
statistics because the ages of rape victims were recorded for the first
time only in 2004-5. In that period, 974 girls aged under 13 and a
further 3,006 under 16 were raped in England and Wales, while 293 boys
under 13 and 320 aged under 16 were raped. Only one in 15 assailants - a
total of 303 - were found guilty in court. Senior police officers
believe actual numbers of rapes may be far higher because many children
do not report the crime.
The release of the figures follows news this week that
a 15-year-old boy was charged with rape after an 11-year-old girl became
pregnant. In law, a child under 13 is deemed incapable of consenting to
sex, so any intercourse is classed as rape. The schoolgirl, from West
Lothian, who will become Britain's youngest mother when she gives birth
next month, fears she will not be allowed to keep her baby. She said to
the Scottish Sun: 'I've been told by social workers there's a chance the
baby won't come home with me from the hospital. They say our house is
too small and needs redecorating. I'm willing to do whatever it takes to
keep my baby.' Last month another 15-year-old boy admitted raping an
11-year-old in a lavatory at a Sainsbury's supermarket. Sentencing was
adjourned until next month for psychiatric reports to be prepared.
The Home Office figures show that girls under 16 made
up 31 per cent of the 12,867 females who were raped in 2004-5, while
boys of the same age comprised 54 per cent of the 1,135 males raped in
the same period. The figures were obtained by the NSPCC, Britain's
biggest children's charity, which will launch a campaign tomorrow with
the slogan 'Don't Hide It' to urge young people to report sexual abuse
to someone they trust rather than suffer in silence. Evidence collected
by ChildLine, the 24-hour telephone advice service that recently merged
with the NSPCC, shows that of the 8,637 young people who rang in last
year about sexual abuse, 4,414 - just over half - said they had been
raped. It was the first time that a majority of calls involved rape. Of
those, 842 had been raped by their father, 421 by a stranger and 285 by
their boyfriend. Almost all of the remainder were raped by someone they
knew. Eighty per cent of the 4,414 reports of rape were made by girls,
and 91 per cent of the assailants were men or boys.
'A child calls ChildLine on average once every hour to
talk about rape and other types of sexual abuse,' said NSPCC chief
executive Mary Marsh. 'Children have phoned in to talk in confidence
about having been raped in toilets, phone boxes, cars, bedrooms, bushes
and parks.' The NSPCC's belief that there were many more young victims
beyond the 4,414 who called ChildLine is backed up by the police.
Detective Chief Superintendent Peter Spindler, head of child abuse
investigations for the Metropolitan Police, said that, although the
force investigated 793 rapes of children in 2005-06, 'we are told by
academics that 95 per cent of crimes committed against children don't
get reported, so the true figure of rapes and sexual offences could be
many times higher.'
Spindler and his team of 600 staff across London have
seen the number of 'intra-familial rapes' of under-16s by close
relatives, carers and professionals - such as teachers and Scout masters
- rise from 282 in 2002-03 to 392 in 2005-06, a jump of 35 per cent.
Officers in Operation Sapphire, the Met squad which investigates rapes,
have also seen their caseload grow. Detectives are especially concerned
about a rise in the number of attacks on girls under 16 involving more
than one male assailant, who are sometimes known to the victim.
The NSPCC's latest campaign will urge sexually abused
adolescents to seek help from someone they feel be sure of, ring
ChildLine or visit its new website,
www.donthideit.com Advertisements depicting face masks to represent
the fact that many, if not most, victims keep quiet about attacks are
intended to prompt greater reporting of the crime. At a launch at
Parliament of Don't Hide It, the charity will call on the government to
provide a more comprehensive network of therapeutic services nationwide
so that children who have experienced sexual abuse can get help. 'There
are feelings of guilt and shame and fear and not wanting to make the
situation worse'
Julia Latcham-Smith, 25, of Bridgend, south Wales,
left, was sexually abused for five years by her father, Michael Everson,
who is now in prison. My father began abusing me when I was eight. I
immediately told my mother, but she said I was being ridiculous and Dad
denied it. I didn't mention it again and kept it to myself. After that
it happened regularly. When I was 10 I told a friend, whose mother
alerted the social services. I told them everything. Dad was arrested
and questioned by police but the next day I retracted my allegations
because I just wanted the whole thing to go away. After that, things got
worse. I told social services a second time when I was 13, but again I
withdrew my claims. I couldn't cope with the guilt I felt about the
upset I'd caused. I decided to pretend it had never happened and so
lived in complete denial for several years. It was only after I got
married, told my husband and began having kids of my own - I have two
daughters - that I decided to do something.
Dad had unexpectedly confessed to me on the phone
once, soon after my wedding. A year later, I bought some tape recording
equipment, rang him and got him to confess all over again, then handed
the tape to the police. He was convicted at Swansea Crown Court last
July of 10 counts of indecent assault, attempted rape and gross
indecency. He got eight years. I wish now that I had stuck to my guns
when I was 10. That would have prevented the abuse continuing. But it's
incredibly hard for a young person who has been abused to speak out.
There are feelings of guilt and shame and fear, and not wanting to make
the situation worse or lead to the family being broken up. I desperately
wanted the abuse to stop, but it felt easier to keep my mouth shut.
Denis Campbell
14 May 2006
http://society.guardian.co.uk/children/story/0,,1774646,00.html
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