What happens during a rape or sexual assault investigation

Your formal statement

We will ask you to give us a formal statement. This is sometimes called an ‘Achieving Best Evidence’ (ABE) statement. We'll ask you to tell us what happened in as much detail as possible, to help with the investigation.

If you agree, the statement will be video recorded. If the case goes to trial, the video can be played in court instead of you having to repeat your statement in person.

How we'll keep you updated

We'll agree a contact plan with you so you know when you'll hear from us. For example we might agree to update you every 28 days, or whenever there is something new to tell you.

How long it takes

At this point, it may feel like things slow down. It can take a long time for us to build the strongest possible case.

Investigations normally take months rather than weeks, and in a small number of cases can take much longer.

Support is available throughout the whole process.

Support for rape and sexual assault

Deciding whether to charge the suspect

After investigating, we can decide to either:

1. refer the case to the Crown Prosecution Service (CPS), if we think there may be enough evidence for them to charge the suspect
2. close the investigation, if we don't think there is enough evidence to continue with a prosecution

The CPS is an organisation responsible for deciding which cases should be taken to trial in court. It is separate from the police and from government.

Referring a case to the Crown Prosecution Service (CPS)

Phone and social media information

You are not the person under investigation and you shouldn't be made to feel that way. Our investigation should focus on the suspect and not on you.

But during the investigation we may ask for your permission to collect evidence from your phone or social media accounts. We'll only take information that's directly relevant to the crime.

You're in control, and if you don't want to give us access, you don't have to. But we'll discuss your reasons with you and try to ease your worries.

• if you give us permission to examine your mobile phone, we’ll do our best to return it to you within 24 hours
• where we need your phone for longer than 24 hours, we’ll offer you a temporary replacement to use in the meantime

If the case goes to trial and you've chosen not to give access to your data, the lawyers defending the accused may try to suggest you were hiding something.

If the case goes to court, some of your phone and social media data might be shown to the lawyers who are defending the suspect. This means the suspect might get to see it.

This can all be upsetting, but we think it's important to tell you about the possibilities, so you can make an informed choice about what to do. Whatever you decide, we will guide and support you through the process.

Your right to anonymity and who we'll talk to

We take great care to protect people's anonymity from the press and public. But there are some things we may need to share with some other people:

• if we contact witnesses we may have to tell some of them your name
• if we interview a suspect, we need to tell them your name
• if you're under 16, we'll need to tell your parent(s) or guardian(s)

Witnesses we talk to might include anyone who saw or heard something, or anyone you've talked to about the incident.

It's against the law for anyone to publish your name or details that might identify you (including on social media). Anyone who reports sexual offences to the police is automatically given the right to public anonymity for life.

Sometimes we put out a press release about a case to look for witnesses or other people who may have been a victim of the same offender. But you cannot be named publicly by the police and we're very experienced at protecting anonymity.

If you're unhappy with how we treat you

You have the right to be treated with respect and dignity at all times. But we know that sometimes your experience might feel unfair, insensitive, or worse.

If this happens to you, we want to support you and make things better. If we can't, we want to make it as easy as possible for you to hold us to account.

If you're unhappy with our decision not to charge someone or pass your case to the Crown Prosecution Service, you might be able to use the Victims' Right to Review (VRR) scheme.

If you're unhappy about anything else about the way we've treated you, you can:

• file a complaint against us online using our online complaints service
• contact the Victims' Commissioner who is appointed by the Government to represent the victims and witnesses of crime

Withdrawing from the investigation

If you decide you don't want to carry on with the investigation, you can pause or stop at any time. You can ask for your case to be reopened again later if you change your mind.

Even if you decide to withdraw, your report can help us stop people committing crimes in future.

What happens to the suspect during an investigation

If we have arrested a suspect they might be kept in prison during an investigation, or they might be released.

If they're released, there might be restrictions about what they can do, for example not contacting certain people or going to certain places.

What happens when a rape or sexual assault case goes to trial