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Disclosing private sexual photographs and films 2015 to 2021 (873A/21)

Request

I am requesting the following, all separated by year, from the years 2015 – 2021 calendar years.

1. The number of cases of reports of intimate image abuse, including intimate images or videos that were taken or shared without consent of the victim. (Disclosing private sexual photographs and films with intent to cause distress under section 33 of Criminal Justice and Courts Act 2015).

  1. The number of these allegations which were made by women, the number that were made by men.

    3. The number of allegations that led to a suspect being “charged” or “reported” to court.

    4. How many of these convictions were of men, how many of women?

Response

Our data are not organised in such a way as to allow us to provide this information within the appropriate (cost) limit within the Freedom of Information (FOI) Act (see ‘Reason for Decision’ below).

Unfortunately, due to a major change in West Midlands Police recording systems, the information that you have requested after 7th April 2021 cannot be retrieved. Therefore we are unable to provide the information for this part of your request.

Please accept our apologies for any inconvenience that this may cause.

Although excess cost removes the force’s obligations under the Freedom of Information Act, as a gesture of goodwill I have supplied information, relative to your request, retrieved before it was realised that the fees limit would be exceeded (see enclosed document). I trust this is helpful, but it does not affect our legal right to rely on the fees regulations for the remainder of the request.

  1. The number of cases of reports of intimate image abuse, including intimate images or videos that were taken or shared without consent of the victim. (Disclosing private sexual photographs and films with intent to cause distress under section 33 of Criminal Justice and Courts Act 2015).

 

Year No. Records
2015 60
2016 114
2017 126
2018 150
2019 243
2020 317
2021 94
Total 1104

 

** 2021 = Up to 7th April 2021

  1. The number of these allegations which were made by women, the number that were made by men
Year Female Male Unknown Total
2015 51 9   60
2016 102 12 114
2017 108 17 1 126
2018 125 24 1 150
2019 204 37 2 243
2020 256 57 4 317
2021 74 19 1 94
Total 920 175 9 1104

 

** 2021 = Up to 7th April 2021

The records that are not included in this male / female chart are either unknown or have identified as another gender. Ie; transgender.

  1. The number of allegations that led to a suspect being “charged” or “reported” to court.
OUTCOME 2015 2016 2017 2018 2019 2020 2021 TOTAL
OC10: Formal action against the offender not in public interest (Police)       2 1 1   4
OC14: Evidential Difficulties Victim Based – No Named suspect: Crime confirmed but victim declined / unable to support further investigation to identify offender.     1 7 1 13 1 23
OC15: Named Suspect identified: victim support but evidential difficulties prevent further action 20 25 36 31 83 86 18 299
OC16: Named Suspect identified: evidential difficulties prevent further action; victim does not support (or has withdrawn support from) police action 6 32 36 67 85 117 29 372
OC18: Investigation Complete: No suspect identified. Investigated as far as possible – Case closed pending further investigative opportunities 12 22 26 23 52 66 17 218
OC1a: Charge/summons 12 10 9 6 3 7   47
OC1b: Postal Charge 1 6 4 2 1 2   16
OC1d: Charge/summons with Alternative Offence     1         1
OC2: Caution – YOUTH  (inc Conditional Caution)   4           4
OC20: Further action resulting from crime report will be undertaken by another body or agency         1 5 1 7
OC21: Named Suspect identified:  Further investigation to support formal action being taken against the suspect not in the public interest (police)       3 1     4
OC3: Caution – ADULT  (inc Conditional Caution) 7 12 8 7 4 3 1 42
OC3a: Adult Caution (inc Conditional Caution) with Alternative Offence   1           1
OC8: Community Resolution 2 2 4 2 6 2   18
Unknown     1   5 15 27 48
Total 60 114 126 150 243 317 94 1104
  1. How many of these convictions were of men, how many of women?
Year Female Male Unknown Total
2015 5 17 38 60
2016 9 26 79 114
2017 4 22 100 126
2018 1 16 133 150
2019 7 7 229 243
2020 3 11 303 317
2021   1 93 94
Total 29 100 975 1104

 

** 2021 = Up to 7th April 2021

The records are where the sex is either unknown or identified as another gender ie; transgender.

We cannot provide details of convictions, however above is the gender of the offenders.

A conviction is the result of a court case.  In order to locate this information an individual Police National Computer check of each individual sent to court would be required to retrieve this information – this exceeds cost limitations.

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