Police's 'critical failure' to provide facts on sex attacks

THERE is a "critical failure" to answer basic questions about sex crimes against women, including how many are raped by strangers each year, a report has found.

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The Angiolini Inquiry, set up in the wake of the murder of Sarah Everard, found that prevention schemes are often "just words".

Lady Elish Angiolini found that data on offences was "difficult to obtain, patchy and incomplete".

Speaking to journalists, she said: "No-one was able to confidently tell me how many women nationally report being the victim of sexually motivated crimes in public spaces.

"This gap in knowledge fundamentally impacted my ability to assess how effective current measures are at preventing these crimes.