‘Vast majority’ of sex abuse victims do not report it, says charity

Charity leaders say the ‘vast majority’ of schoolchildren who are victims of sexual abuse do not report it.

Figures revealed at yesterday’s spotlight review into peer-on-peer abuse in schools, conducted by Herefordshire Council, show there were 13 sexually related incidents, including verbal abuse in the county, from May to October this year.

Herefordshire Council has agreed to tighten up its policies including how they separate victims and offenders.

But Jocelyn Anderson, chief executive, West Mercia Rape and Sexual Abuse Support Centre, said most victims of sexual abuse do not report it.

“It is probably the last taboo,” she said.

“People don’t want to talk about rape and sexual violence,” she said.

“You don’t want to think about a five-year-old child being raped, you don’t want to think about an older child actually raping somebody.

“It usually has a very emotive response from people who are forced to actually think about this.

“It’s very easy to say it happens over there, it happens to other people and that it doesn’t happen in Herefordshire. It does.

“Any form of rape or sexual abuse, assault by penetration is a deeply damaging event in somebody’s life.

“It can take years to recover from and some people don’t recover which is why it is so important that children and young people get the support that they need when they need it and for as long as they need it.”

She said children and young people don’t report the assault and want it to just go away.

Ms Anderson said they had one case take nearly four years before it went to court.

“The quickest we’ve had a case go through recently has been just under two years,” she said.

“If this happens to you when you are 12 do you want to still be thinking about it when you are 13, 14 and 15?”

Ms Anderson said the Department for Education’s guidelines do not go far enough.

“It’s not the document we submitted. It doesn’t go far enough and it doesn’t give schools enough guidance.”

Council children and families director Chris Baird acknowledged that peer-on-peer abuse is affecting children in the county.

“It is affecting children now and through their lives,” he said.

“What we can do to work together to address this is really important.

“The work through safeguarding partnership and the audit will provide a way of doing that.

“There is also something about how we talk about it in society. We’re focusing on peer on peer abuse and the role in education.

“There are wider considerations about how we, in society, as parents and adults act and behave and how children learn from that.”