Voyeurism stats revealed for Cumbria

Exclusive Freedom of Information figures have shown over 105 reports of voyeurism to Cumbria Police in the last 4 years....but it's feared that's just the tip of the iceberg.

As per the nature of the crime perpetrators try to make sure they're never caught and that their victims never know it's even happened to them.

Cumbria Police officers who investigated the 105 reports since 2020 arrested 61 suspects.

The force also showed in the details they exclusively shared with us that in 17 of the reports the victim believed a mobile phone was involved.

We asked for a breakdown of the ages of the suspects involved, here's what we were told, 15 of the suspects were believed to be aged just 10 to 16 years old. The majority of the suspects were over 21.

Jess works at the Revenge Porn Helpline and she said: "People have been recorded without their consent. I would imagine that people don't realise that it's actually against the law but also in terms of the evidence side of things, you know it's happened but you haven't got any evidence and that kind of victim blaming mentality of whether they will be believed in that sense as well.

"There's so many motivations not just revenge. They're going to record that content with the intention of threatening to share that content in the sense of having a laugh with a friend showing 'oh, look what I've done', but also on the relationship side of things, 'if you try and leave, I'll go to share this content that I've got that you didn't realise existed anyway.'

"With voyeurism you haven't taken that content yourself so it's almost that other element of lack of control and with voyeurism, you have no idea that these pictures were even created in the first place, so it can be really kind of detrimental even to kind of have that lack of trust. Your trust in someone has been damaged.

"When someone comes in saying they've been recorded without their consent essentially what we'd do is reassure them that they haven't done anything wrong in this situation. The other person who has done that has committed a crime and then obviously because crimes were committed, we do advise people to go to the police and a little bit about the evidence that they'd need to collect.

"We're a non-legal support service so if we think they might benefit from legal advice we'd signpost them. But in terms of what we can do practically at the moment, we're quite limited because we're a practical support service so we always tend to say if the images or videos were to be shared, then to get back in touch with us and we can help report them for removal."

A spokesman for Cumbria Police said: "Reports of voyeurism – like any reports of any sexual offences - are taken extremely seriously and officers treat such reports with care and professionalism due to the significant impact they can have on victims.

"We would urge anyone who has been a victim of such an offence to report it immediately so that the incident can be acted upon swiftly.

"Victims of such offences show extreme courage and strength in coming forward and reporting these incidents so they can be investigated thoroughly and effectively, as quickly as possible.

"We would urge anyone with information about these, or any other sexual offences, to contact the police immediately.

"You can report online at www.cumbria.police.uk/reportit.

"You can also phone on 101. Alternatively you can contact Crimestoppers, anonymously, on 0800 555 111.

"Always call 999 in an emergency and/or when a crime is in progress."

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