Public support Operation Yewtree

A YouGov survey for the NSPCC of over 2,000 adults from across Britain, has found overwhelming support for the police and CPS in prosecuting historic cases of abuse.

Of those questioned in the North West, almost four fifths (79 per cent) support pursuing cases of sexual abuse even if they happened years ago. Nearly two thirds (61 per cent) said they specifically supported Operation Yewtree, a joint Operation by the police and the NSPCC set up in the wake of the Jimmy Savile revelations.

But the public still consider the chances of victims getting justice to be low. Less than half (41 per cent) of North West respondents think victims had a fair chance of getting justice.

Peter Watt, Yewtree lead for the NSPCC, said: “The public’s support for pursuing non-recent cases is reassuring for victims of sexual abuse. Despite long investigations and often shocking revelations the public remain supportive of Operation Yewtree. And they strongly support pursuing offenders in other cases even after a number of years have passed.

“This is vital because child sexual abuse, by its very nature, often isn’t revealed until much later. Children often don’t understand what has happened to them until they are older or they try and speak out at the time but aren’t believed as happened to many of Savile’s victims. A failure to pursue non-recent cases would effectively give immunity to many offenders.

“It’s vital all victims of sexual abuse, both recent and non-recent, continue to come forward. We’ve seen a sea-change in action by the police and CPS and it’s great to see strong public support for this change.”

Whilst men and women gave very similar answers throughout the survey, women were less likely to think victims of sexual crimes had a fair chance of getting justice at 36 per cent compared to 43 per cent of men.

Whilst cases are difficult to prosecute after a long passage of time there have been great successes recently with former headmaster Roland Peter Wright found guilty of sexually assaulting five boys aged eight to 13 – offences which went back more than half a century.