The Wiltshire policewoman who is leading the county’s biggest consultation on tackling violence against women and girls and an associated probe into everyday misogyny has spoken of how she doesn’t want her daughter to grow up in a world like this.

Sex crimes in Wiltshire have risen by nine per cent according to the latest figures for 2020-21.

But rape detection rate in the county is 4.1 per cent – meaning that only four of every 100 reported incidents results in a charge or a summons to court.

“I would like that figure to be higher, of course I would,” said Detective Superintendent Sarah Robbins.

She added: “Rape is such a uniquely difficult crime to investigate and we can’t hide that fact. The vast majority of allegations that we get involve previously-intimate partners or associates, it is actually extremely rare for it to be someone who is completely unknown to you.”

But Supt Robbins pledged that the force will act on the information it receives from the anonymous survey which it is urging all women and girls in the county to take part in.

Wiltshire Police seek women's advice on how to protect them | The Wiltshire Gazette and Herald

“We honestly will act and I hope that people will trust me when I say that. We weren’t made to do this survey, it’s something we decided to do proactively," she said.

“We wanted to do something where we could get really genuine human responses from people so that we can try to put ourselves in their shoes as much as you ever can, to try understand what their experience has been - and it becomes a completely pointless exercise if we don’t do anything with that information.

“If there are particular people out there who are causing people concern or if one of our processes is giving a disservice to victims for a reason we may not have considered, I need to know about that so that we can change it.”

Supt Robbins, who has a two-year-old daughter, added: “I have lived in this society with all the misogyny and sexism that is being called out at the moment. I’ve got a daughter, I have a vested interest in this.

“It’s crazy that in 2022 we’re still talking about this stuff happening. You have that spectrum from the most horrendous offending by people who should get really lengthy custodial sentences to the casual misogyny that takes place and you kind of think that in 2022 we’d be a bit more forward now, and I don’t think we are.

“My daughter is very young at the moment but I don’t want her in 10 years' time to have experiences of any of that, that casual misogyny that we know just happens every day to pretty much every female in our community.”

Fill out the survey via wiltshire.police.uk or click here.