Sexual offences in the Service Justice System: 2020
Published 25 March 2021
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This publication is available at https://www.gov.uk/government/statistics/sexual-offences-in-the-service-justice-system-2020/sexual-offences-in-the-service-justice-system-2020
This annual publication provides statistics on recent and historical offences committed by UK Armed Forces personnel and Civilians Subject to Service Discipline that are contrary to the Sexual Offences Act 2003 (SOA 03) or historic sexual offences and dealt wholly within the Service Justice System (SJS).
A historical offence relates to an offence that is alleged to have occurred prior to the implementation of the 2003 Sexual Offences Act yet reported within this reporting year.
Cases included in these statistics were either reported to the Service Police, referred to the Director of Service Prosecutions (DSP) or heard in the Court Martial between 1 January 2020 to 31 December 2020. Comparisons have been made to figures from 2018 and 2019.
The latest Armed Forces strength figures for each Service should be taken into consideration when making comparisons as there are more Army personnel compared the Royal Navy, Royal Marines and Royal Air Force (RAF) personnel in the Armed Forces.
Key Points and Trends
- during 2020 the Service Police initiated a total of 161 investigations into sexual offences contrary to the SOA 03 and historic offences; 146 were into offences contrary to the SOA 03 and 15 were investigations into historical offences. This represents a total decrease of 24 investigations contrary to the SOA 03 for 2020 compared to 2019 and an increase of 7 historical investigations from 2019.
- of the 161 total investigations, 100 led to charges being referred to the DSP by the Service Police, 29 investigations did not lead to a referral and 33 were still under investigation at the end of 2020. This represents a decrease of 10 cases that resulted in a referral of charges, a decrease of 6 cases that were not referred and the same number of cases still under investigation compared to the 2019 figures.
- the 146 investigations into SOA 03 offences involved 150 suspects (140 male, 4 female and 6 unidentified suspects) and 180 victims (36 male, 137 female and 7 unknown or unspecified).
- the Service Prosecuting Authority (SPA) received 152 case referrals from the Service Police, preferred charges contrary to the SOA 03 in 86 cases, 47 cases were non-directed and preferred an alternative non-SOA 03 charge in 4 cases. The SPA figures for 2020 contain cases which are still in the process of being investigated and therefore no decision has yet been made as to whether these cases will be charged or non-directed.
- the Court Martial tried 51 defendants in 2020 who faced 81 charges. Of these charges, 50 were found guilty, 30 were found not guilty and 1 charge was discontinued at Court Martial. 30 defendants were found guilty of a sexual offence. Please note that several defendants were convicted of multiple sexual offence charges.
Point of Contact: Service Police Policy
Further information: People-Sec-DCCLSvcPolicePol@mod.gov.uk
Background Quality Report: Background Quality Report
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Please refer to the Supplementary tables containing all data presented in this publication.
Introduction
These statistics provide information on offences contrary to the Sexual Offences Act 2003 (SOA 03) and historical sexual offences committed by members of the Armed Forces or Civilians Subject to Service Discipline (CSSD) and dealt with wholly within the SJS. The Armed Forces Act 2006 (AFA 06) provides the legislation for the SJS and this is supported by the Manual of Service Law (MSL), which provides the necessary guidance to those that are required to deliver it.
The SJS is primarily delivered by Commanding Officers (COs), the Service Police (the Royal Navy Police (RNP), Royal Military Police (RMP) and Royal Air Force Police (RAFP)), the Service Prosecuting Authority (SPA) and the Military Court Service (MCS).
The majority of the SOA 03 came into force on 1 May 2004, in the main replacing the Sexual Offences Act 1956.
As of 1 March 2018, all SOA 03 offences are listed within Schedule 2 of the AFA 06. Consequently, Section 113 of the AFA 06 requires all allegations of such offences to be reported to the Service Police. All allegations of a sexual offence reported to the Service Police will be investigated.
Currently, decisions on which jurisdiction should deal with criminal offences committed in the UK by Service personnel are made by the Service Justice System and civilian Criminal Justice System policing and prosecutorial authorities on a case by case basis. The Armed Forces Bill 2021, places a duty on the Director of Service Prosecutions and the Director of Public Prosecutions in England and Wales to agree guidance on the handling of cases where there is concurrent jurisdiction. There are equivalent provisions for the Director of Service Prosecutions and Lord Advocate to agree a protocol for Scotland, and for the Director of Service Prosecutions and the Director of Public Prosecutions for Northern Ireland to agree a protocol for Northern Ireland.
The Service Police are trained to undertake investigations into sexual offences at the Defence School of Policing and Guarding. Specialist investigators also attend training accredited by the College of Policing delivered by Civilian Police Forces. The Service Police will refer a suspect with a charge contrary to the SOA 03 once the Evidential Sufficiency Test has been met (as detailed in Section 116 of the AFA 06).
Offences contrary to the SOA 03 cannot be heard summarily by a CO. All SOA 03 offences are therefore referred by the Service Police to the SPA for a decision to prosecute or not, using the established prosecutorial tests (realistic prospect of conviction and Service interest).
The Service Prosecuting Authority (SPA) was formed on 1 January 2009. It carries out its prosecutorial functions independently of the military Chain of Command. The main role of the SPA is to review cases referred to it by the Service Police and the Chain of Command and to prosecute appropriate cases at Court Martial. The SPA is headed by the Director of Service Prosecutions (DSP), a senior civil servant appointed by HM The Queen.
The MCS provides a criminal court service for the Royal Navy, Army and RAF in the Court Martial. It has done so on a Tri-Service basis since 2007 and manages two permanent Court Martial centres. The Court Martial runs akin to the UK Civilian Crown Court and cases are heard by a Judge Advocate appointed by the Judge Advocate General. The procedures for the Court Martial are laid down in the Armed Forces (Court Martial) Rules 2009.
The AFA 06 can be found at: Armed Forces Act 2006
The MSL can be found at: Manual of Service Law
The Armed Forces (Court Martial) Rules 2009 can be found at: Armed Forces (Court Martial) Rules 2009
Service Police Investigations
Between 1 January 2020 and 31 December 2020, the Service Police initiated a total of 161 investigations into sexual offences contrary to the SOA 03 and historic offences. 146 were into offences contrary to the SOA 03 and 15 were investigations into historical offences. This indicates a decrease when comparing against 2019 (178 investigations) but an increase over 2018 (153 investigations). Investigations that were reported as sexual offences but then reclassified to a non-sexual offence have not been included in these statistics. Attempted offences are included where reported as such and where they are the headline offence.
Figure 1: SOA 03 and Historical Investigations by Service Police in 2020
When broken down by Service, in 2020, 23 investigations were conducted by the Royal Navy Police, 102 by the Royal Military Police, 29 by the Royal Air Force Police and 7 investigations were carried out by Joint Service Police Units.
Figure 2: Service Police SOA 03 Investigations by Type of Offence in 2020
The number of SOA 03 investigations in 2020 for Rape (26 investigations) and Sexual Assault with Penetration (10 investigations) has decreased in comparison to 2019 (36 and 13 investigations respectively). Investigations in 2020 for Sexual Assault with No Penetration (89 investigations) have decreased by 4 investigations compared to 2019. Investigations into Exposure (5 investigations) has decreased by 6 investigations since 2019. Voyeurism and historical investigations (9 and 15 investigations respectively) have increased since 2019 by 2 and 7 investigations respectively.
Of the 161 total investigations conducted by the Service Police in 2020, 100 investigations led to the referral of charges against the suspect(s), 29 investigations were not referred, and 33 investigations were still ongoing at the end of 2020. Comparisons with 2019 show that there has been a decrease of 10 cases that have been referred, and a decrease of 6 of those not referred in 2020. The number of ongoing investigations is the same as in 2019. Some cases may have had more than one suspect referred to the SPA for charge and as such the sum of the referrals may not equal the number of investigations.
Of the 161 total investigations conducted by the Service Police in 2020, 119 investigations occurred in the UK, which is a decrease of 1 case compared to 2019. 15 investigations occurred in Germany, which is an increase of 3 from 2019 and 2 occurred in Cyprus, which shows a decrease of 4 since 2019. There was 1 investigation conducted in Canada which is a decrease of 4 over 2019. There was a decrease of 3 investigations occurring in other countries (20 investigations) compared to 2019. 2020 investigations saw a general reduction for the remaining locations listed in comparison to 2019 (see supplementary Excel tables that accompany these statistics for more information).
Figure 3: Percentage Of 2020 SOA 03 Suspects By Service
150 suspects were identified in investigations conducted by the Service Police in 2020. This figure does not include historical offences but does include suspects who, upon completion of the Service Police investigation, were referred for non-SOA 03 offences where there was at least one suspect referred for a sexual offence. Of these suspects, 140 were male, 4 were female and 6 were unknown. By Service, 23 were Royal Navy/Royal Marines, 94 were recorded as Army, 27 were RAF, there were no civilians and 6 were unknown.
Figure 4: Percentage Of 2020 SOA 03 Victims by Service
180 victims were identified in investigations conducted by the Service Police in 2020. This figure does not include historical offences but does include victims who, upon completion of the Service Police investigation, were reported as victims of non-SOA 03 offences where there was at least one suspect referred for a sexual offence. Of these victims, 36 were male, 137 were female and 7 were unknown or unspecified. By Service, 22 were Royal Navy/Royal Marines, 106 were recorded as Army, 29 were RAF, 15 were civilians and 7 were unrecorded or unknown. Further breakdowns by age and rank, together with comparisons to the 2018 and 2019 figures can be found for both Suspects and Victims in the supplementary Excel tables that accompany these statistics. The 15 Historical Sexual Offences that were investigated in 2020 consisted of 17 suspects, 15 of whom were male and 2 were unrecorded or unknown. For suspects by Service; 11 were recorded as Army, 3 were RAF and 2 were unrecorded or unknown. There were 19 identified victims, of which; 10 were male and 9 were female. For victims by Service; 9 were recorded as Army and 10 were civilian. A more detailed breakdown of these offences, with comparisons to 2018 and 2019 can be found in the supplementary Excel tables that accompanies this report.
Service Prosecuting Authority
Between 1 January 2020 and 31 December 2020, the Service Police Forces referred 152 cases to the SPA where the case included an allegation of an offence contrary to the Sexual Offences Act 2003 (SOA 03), a decrease of 5 cases from 2019. Applying the Full Code Test contained in the Code for Crown Prosecutors, the SPA subsequently decided to prefer charges contrary to the SOA 03 in 86 of these cases, alternative non-SOA 03 charges were preferred in four cases and in 47 cases no charges were preferred. The remainder awaited a decision as at 28 Jan 21. Further breakdowns of these figures against those for 2018 and 2019 can be found in the supplementary Excel tables that accompany these statistics. These figures do not include figures for Child Sex Offences.
The SPA statistics represent the number of cases referred. A case referred to the SPA may relate to multiple suspected offences. The statistics associate cases with the most serious (headline) offence. This means that in cases where, for example, it is reported that a case was charged, the headline offence may not have been charged.
Figure 5: SPA SOA 03 Charging Decisions 1 January to 31 Dec 2020
Of the 152 cases the SPA received in 2020, 92 cases were referred from the Army with charges contrary to SOA 03 brought in 51, with 30 not charged and three charged with alternative non-SOA 03 offences. The RAF referred 33 cases, with charges contrary to SOA 03 brought in 18 cases, with 10 not charged and one charged with an alternative non-SOA 03 offence. The Royal Navy/Royal Marines referred 27 cases, with charges contrary to SOA 03 brought in 17 cases, with seven not charged and none charged with a non-SOA 03 offence.
Court Martial Results
Between 1 January 2020 and 31 December 2020, the Court Martial heard a total of 81 sexual offence charges (including charges relating to historic sexual offences) against 51 defendants. This is a decrease of 8 defendants and 17 charges from 2019 (59 and 98 respectively). The outcome of these trials was that 30 Service Personnel and Civilians Subject to Service Discipline were found guilty of 50 charges and 1 charge was discontinued. Further Breakdowns and comparisons are presented in the Excel supplementary tables that accompany these statistics.
Figure 6: Court Martial SOA 03 Verdicts 1 January to 31 December 2020
Of the 81 charges heard by Court Martial in 2020, the Army accounted for 50 charges, of which 30 were guilty, 19 were not guilty and 1 charge was discontinued. The RAF accounted for 13 charges, of which eight were guilty and five were not guilty. The Royal Navy/Royal Marines accounted for 15 charges of which nine were guilty and six were not guilty.
Further Information
Rounding
Figures in this publication have not been rounded. This is because Court Martial results are regularly published and available on the gov.uk website: Court martial results from the military court centres.
Revisions
Corrections to the published statistics will be made if errors are found, or if figures change because of improvements to methodology or changes to definitions. When making corrections, we will follow the Ministry of Defence Statistics, revisions and corrections policy. All corrected figures will be identified by the symbol “r”, and an explanation will be given of the reason for and size of the revision. Corrections which would have a significant impact on the utility of the statistics will be corrected as soon as possible, by reissuing the publication. Minor errors will also be corrected, but for convenience these corrections may be timed to coincide with the next release of the publication.
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