More than 1,000 sex offenders including child rapists escape justice ‘just by saying sorry’, shocking figures reveal

New figures from the UK Home Office reveal that at least 1,000 sex offenders have avoided getting a criminal record over the past two years through apologising to their victims. Police provided “community resolutions” in 1,064 cases in 2021 and 2022, including some of which involved child rape. The use of out-of-court sanctions for sexual assault has doubled in just 12 months. Home Office figures show that the number of times the penalty was used in all sexual offences increased by 53%.
A community resolution, which involves an offender admitting responsibility, is meant to be used by police for low-level crimes, and this could mean an agreement to pay compensation, rehabilitation activity, or a “restorative justice” meeting involving the victim and offender for an apology. The sanction was used to settle 643 sex crimes, including rapes, sexual assaults, grooming, and flashing offenses in the 12 months to March 2022, which is a 53% increase from the 421 dealt with in the year before.
Lincolnshire police handed out the penalty in four child rape cases last year, one of which involved a girl under 13. The sanction was utilised after two rapes of girls under 13 by officers in Nottinghamshire. Some of the sexual offenses could have occurred between consenting underage children, where, while the incident is recorded as a crime, cops believe it would be too severe to take the teenager to court for their punishment.
While police bosses say the penalty is usually used in relation to sexual offences only if the victim consents for the crime to be handled that way, Rape Crisis England and Wales disagree, “We do not believe that restorative justice or community resolutions are appropriate remedies for sex offences, or other forms of violence against women and girls” said the chief executive, Jayne Bulter, and added, “Justice solutions such as these minimize the severity of sexual violence and its impact on survivors and fail to acknowledge the inherent power dynamics at play in these types of crimes.” Regarding the recent report into Scotland Yard which was overseen by Baroness Casey, a disturbing picture of the force and how it deals with sexual offenses emerged.
Rape cases are being dropped because samples are kept in “over-stuffed dilapidated or broken fridges and freezers”, and one officer told the review that rape detection rates were so low “you may as well say it is legal in London”.
Couzens exposed himself to two frightened attendants at a McDonald’s drive-through in Kent, just three days before he snatched Sarah from a South London street in March 2021. Scotland Yard was given a description of him, his car registration number, and bank card details, but the police failed to investigate until he was arrested for the abduction and murder of Sarah. A woman flashed by Couzens said: “If he had been held accountable when we had reported the crime, we could have saved Sarah.” Couzens is serving a whole-life sentence for the murder of Sarah.



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