Police say they need to do more over Stroud sex crimes

Police have admitted they need to do more to protect women after a series of sexual assaults over the summer.

Officers faced "challenging questions" when 200 people attended a public meeting in Stroud, Gloucestershire.

Police called the meeting after what they said had been "a number of awful and frightening rapes, sexual assaults and inappropriate behaviours".

Stroud MP Siobhan Baillie said the crimes, including a rape in May, have "rocked the community".

The Conservative politician attended the meeting and said that "the message we got was that a lot of women did not feel safe".

"We were also told very clearly that a number of women and younger women did not feel that they were able to go to the police," she added.

"They didn't feel that they could trust that they would either be listened to or taken seriously."

Ms Baillie said that this "obviously has to change".

Gloucestershire Police said the crimes included "two stranger rapes through to young girls being approached by men making lewd comments, incidents of indecent exposure and men masturbating in public".

Around 90% of the 200 people that attended the public meeting on 9 August were female, and Neighbourhood Policing Inspector Paul Cruise said there was a clear sense of the impact the incidents had on the community.

"The issue of male misogyny and violence towards women is a widespread societal one," he said

"It touches almost every aspect of our lives and fixing it will require changes in so many areas, including education, social media, learnt behaviours from adults and peers and of course our criminal justice systems."

A man has been arrested following a sexual assault in broad daylight near a supermarket in July.

Supt Mark Chicken from Gloucestershire Police said the force is working with partners to address people's concerns.

"We have also upped the number of patrols that we are doing in those areas to provide visible presence in those areas," he added.

Local residents Nikki Owen and Sydney-Anne McAllister formed the protest group Enough's Enough in response to recent incidents.

The group are planning a protest march on 17 September.

People who attend are being encouraged to wear black sports kit to highlight the fact how women cannot go for a run without assessing potential threats, the group said.

"We are shifting the discussion away from what women can do to protect themselves and instead focus on men's behaviour," it said in a statement.

If you have been affected by this subject, you can access independent support through Gloucestershire's Rape and Sexual Abuse Centre.

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