Police chiefs are hiring 16 civilian detectives to help them cope with an unprecedented rise in historic sex crime allegations.

Bosses say the investigators – who are initially being hired on one year contracts - will work in the force's Major Investigation Team, supporting detectives working on serious and complex crimes and historical sexual abuse cases.

The move has been welcomed by one child abuse charity and by the county's Police Federation, which represents rank and file officers.

Just three weeks ago, senior officers revealed that Cumbria Police has seen a 10 per cent rise in reported sex crime, with the surge in allegations being put down to the increased willingness of victims to contact the police.

A force spokesman said: “We are recruiting 16 police staff in total and these are to increase our capacity to investigate serious crime.

“An increase in non-recent historical allegations of serious sexual offences has been experienced as a result of increased confidence in police response. This increase has in itself put pressure on the Constabulary’s investigative resources.”

In the year to March, the county saw 1,024 sex crimes reported – 300 of them rapes, and just under half of these being historic.

Gabrielle Shaw, chief executive of the National Association for People Abused in Childhood (napac), welcomed the move.

“It's fantastic news,” she said.

“It recognises the scale of the demand for such investigations and will go a long way towards helping victims and survivors feel that they're being heard.”

Napac fields between 4,000 and 5,000 calls every year from sex abuse victims, including some from Cumbria. One in seven are disclosing abuse for the first time.

Gabrielle added: “Time and time again, with people who haven't previously disclosed, the most common experience is that they weren't believed, they were silenced, or they were told that they were fantasists.

“A lot of survivors and victims carry a lot of shame, which is wholly misplaced.

“But reporting of sex crimes has been rising exponentially.

“The Jimmy Savile case was a watershed moment when it comes to recognition of it but there have been other cases – such as the football abuse story last year revealed by Andy Woodward. That helped create a massive spike in the number of people coming forward to report abuse.

“It's good news that Cumbria Police are putting that kind of resource into it. Not everybody who goes to the police will get the outcome they want but at least they will be listened to and treated with respect.

“That's what people want.”


There was a time when Cumbria Police Federation would have opposed hiring civilian detectives amid fears of “policing on the cheap.”

But chairman Martin Plummer says rising workloads have now made it necessary.

“We're seeing significant rises in work-related stress and anxiety among officers, so anything that alleviates that is welcome," he said.

“We still very much advocate that you should come through the police and have front line experience before moving to the specialist environment of being a detective.

“That's a best case scenario.
Martin Plummer

“But police forces have their backs against the wall with the financial situation and the reduction in officer numbers, and officers currently working in the investigative arena simply can't cope.

“We're seeing unprecedented work-related stress within the detectives we've got, so we've got to do something to help them.”


Last month, commenting on the rising number of historical sex crime being reported in Cumbria, Detective Chief Superintendent Andy Slattery said: “When they see other people getting justice it snowballs.

“It's not just the Jimmy Savile effect. It's about the number of high-profile cases which are coming forward from the 1970s, 80s, and 90s.

“People are realising that this is a priority for the police; that victims haven't been forgotten and they will be supported to get justice, however long that justice has been delayed.

"We have a professional response to historic sexual offences. We've increased our staffing in this area. There are more resources and there has been more training of front line staff.”

The new jobs come with a salary range of £24,813 to £26,535.

As well as abuse cases, the investigators may also work on “cold cases” and homicides.