Detective Superintendent Jayne Doherty is determined to dispel myths, change approach around sexual assault
Detective Superintendent Jayne Doherty is out to dispel a few prevailing myths.
As the head of the NSW Sex Crimes Squad, she doesn't shy away from the fact securing a conviction in a sexual assault case is often a challenge.
But she wants to assure every victim that won't deter her detectives.
"The promise that I can make to victims is that we as NSW Police will work as hard as we can to walk alongside of them on the journey that they choose to take," Superintendent Doherty told ABC News.
That is the "victim-centric and trauma-informed" approach Superintendent Doherty claims she is determined to instil in every officer in NSW who deals with a sexual assault case.
After several high-profile rape trials and criticism from several judges about what they described as merit-less sexual assault prosecutions, there are concerns among advocates that victims in NSW will be increasingly reluctant to come forward.
The judges' criticism of several cases has prompted a review by the Director of Public Prosecution into every sexual assault case currently committed for trial.
While Superintendent Doherty would not comment on the review, she conceded "anything that paints victims in a negative or positive way affects people coming forward".
"No sexual assault matter is easy to gain a conviction on and they shouldn't be, all matters should stand on their own, but we are focused on that victim and investigating that matter fully, so that we can present the best case to a court," she said.
"So, the commitment we can make as police is that we will do our best to support victims through the matter and we will investigate as far as victims will allow us to investigate."
The system helping people 'tell their story'
With more than 30 years on the force and the vast majority of that spent investigating sexual assault cases, Superintendent Doherty took the top job at the NSW Sex Crimes Squad in 2021.
Two years later, she oversaw the introduction of a new online portal, which allows victims to anonymously report sexual assaults to NSW Police without any obligation to take the matter further.
The portal is called the Sexual Assault Reporting Option (SARO) and it's modelled on a previous analogue system, which required people to fill out a hard-copy form to send into NSW Police if they didn't want to be interviewed in person.
In 2022, the year before the online SARO launched, NSW Police had 935 SARO reports, which increased dramatically to 3,965 in the year after the online version launched in 2023.
That equates to about 330 SARO reports every month and has stayed consistently high ever since, with 1,566 reports so far this year.
While the vast majority of victims who use SARO don't want to take the matter further, it has helped police identify potential serial offenders.
The form allows victims to tick a box if they wish to be notified when other victims come forward to report the same offender.
"We've certainly identified persons of interest that have gone across multiple victims and from them, yes we have been able to take action," Superintendent Doherty said.
"We've invited those victims in either to give statements to support the charges with them as a victim or even just to support another victim as a witness.
"If there are other victims then they say well this person will potentially keep going, so we want to stop other people being victims… it gives them that bit of strength to come forward."
Superintendent Doherty said a high proportion — more than 10 per cent — of people using the SARO identified as Aboriginal or Torres Strait Islander.
She said SARO allowed people from communities with "a poor relationship with police" to come forward without fear of repercussions.
"Our Indigenous communities, quite often they're reluctant to bring police into the community ... so if you report something to police and then they come into your community to investigate it, you've brought them in and there's that bad blood within the community," she said.
"SARO allows that victim to tell their story, to have it recorded and have it placed on our police system, without bringing the police actually into that community."
'We still have a long way to go'
The online SARO came at a crucial time for sexual assault prosecutions in NSW, with the introduction of affirmative consent laws in 2022, placing a legal obligation onto people to actively seek consent from their sexual partner.
Superintendent Doherty said the new laws were a welcome clarification to sexual assault laws, but it remains "an ongoing battle" to educate people about consent.
"The consent laws recognises that people's fight or flight responses are quite different," she said.
"The community support for victim's is starting to grow, but we still have a long way to go … There are a lot of rape myths that are still out there and they prevent victims coming forward.
"Unfortunately, if a victim turns up battered and bruised we go 'Oh they're a victim', but if they turn up and they're not, people tend to question the reality of it."