West Midlands Victims Advocate Natalie Queiroz has condemned the 'appalling' sentence handed to three teenage boys who were convicted of raping two girls but allowed to walk free from court. The case has raised serious concerns about confidence in the criminal justice system for reporting violent offences against women and girls.
Drop in Reported VAWG Crimes Questioned
A report to the West Midlands Police and Crime Commissioner's Accountability and Governance Board showed 51,943 recorded violence against women and girls (VAWG) related crimes in the year to March 31, 2026, a 16.2 per cent drop compared to two years earlier. However, Queiroz warned that this decrease may be due to under-reporting rather than a true reduction in crime.
Data also revealed a 12.4 per cent increase in recorded sexual violence, partly driven by new offences under the Online Safety Act 2024, including online sexual abuse and image-based crimes. Rape offences rose by 4.4 per cent compared to the year ending March 2024.
Challenges to Police
At the board meeting, Queiroz challenged acting Chief Constable to ensure West Midlands Police stays 'ahead of the curve' in investigating these crimes and protecting victims. She emphasised that the complexity of VAWG offences—including domestic abuse, stalking, harassment, honour-based abuse, and exploitation—must be understood to assess true trends.
Queiroz stated: 'With the increases in these significant and deeply harmful crimes, the 16.2 per cent decrease in VAWG is something we cannot take on face value as a point to celebrate, regardless of how impressive it sounds as a headline statistic.'
Impact of Controversial Sentence
Last month, three teenage boys with ten rape convictions between them walked free from court after a judge said he did not want to criminalise them. Queiroz called this outcome 'appalling', noting that securing a rape conviction is extremely difficult and the traumatic impact on victims is immense.
'To secure a conviction of rape is so hard, so many cases fail, and the traumatic impact of the process through the criminal justice system alone is so significant,' she said. 'To then get to that point of conviction and that be the judicial outcome is horrendous.'
She added that the message sent to victims is that reporting may be pointless, which is 'fundamentally wrong and is not justice'.
Queiroz urged women and girls to come forward, reminding them of their rights under the Victims Code. Support services are available via the West Midlands Police and Crime Commissioner's website.
