Police secure sexual risk orders to protect public from harm

Nottinghamshire Police safeguarding officers continue to successfully secure civil orders against men considered to pose a potential risk to women and young girls.

Sexual risk orders are a civil order that impose restrictions on the behaviour of a particular person that a court deems necessary for the purposes of protecting the public from risk of sexual harm.

An order can be applied to any person who the police feel poses a risk of sexual harm to the public, even if the individual has not been convicted of a sexual offence.

Depending on the nature of each case, sexual risk orders can place a variety of prohibitions and requirements on individuals.

Restrictions on their activities can include preventing child contact, limiting internet use, and enforcing individuals to tell police about intimate relationships.

Nottinghamshire Police currently has 29 of these sexual risk orders in force across the city and county.

These orders, applied for through the court, are proactively enforced and the sexual risk posed by those who have received orders is carefully managed by specialist officers.

If an individual breaches a sexual risk order they face a prison sentence of up to five years.

The force’s increasing use of sexual risk orders is in addition to a range of other powerful weapons in its arsenal to protect people from harm and reduce potential risk.

These other effective tools include the use of sexual harm prevention orders and domestic violence prevention orders.

Detective Inspector Abi Goucher is the safeguarding and harm reduction lead for Nottinghamshire Police’s Prevention Hub - a collaboration between force departments responsible for developing strategies to prevent crime and disorder throughout the city and county.

She said: “Violence against women and girls is a strategic priority for Nottinghamshire Police. As a force we take a zero-tolerance approach to any incident reported to us.

“We are committed to doing all that we can to protect anyone at risk of sexual harm and we will use all of the tools available to us to help achieve our goal.

“I want to reassure people we remain committed to doing everything we can to protect women and girls, catching those responsible and holding offenders to account.

“Sexual risk orders are a really positive and powerful tool we can use in terms of prevention and protecting the public, helping us to manage individuals considered to pose a potential risk.

“We have dedicated safeguarding civil orders officers who are tasked with exploring options available to us to manage and reduce any further risk.

"These orders offer safeguarding and protection to members of the public as well as ensuring that there are consequences for those individuals who breach their conditions.”