A CONTROVERSIAL former Mayor of Worcester has been forced to apologise after he claimed it was ‘easy’ for victims of rape to report the crime.
Coun Alan Amos also said during a council scrutiny meeting at County Hall that officers shouldn’t record reports of rape as an offence unless a conviction had been secured.
Speaking during the meeting last Tuesday (September 13), Coun Amos said: “So in that sense it’s a claim, or an allegation – easy to make, difficult to prove.
“The reason I’m asking this is because I’m concerned people are talking about massive increases in this, massive increases in that,” he said.
“But surely you can only do that on the basis of convictions? Unless there’s been a conviction you can’t say that offence has occurred,” he added.
The remarks came after figures revealed a 206 per cent increase in reports of rape in South Worcestershire in five years and 168 per cent for the whole county, a figure Coun Amos called ‘horrendous’.
His initial comments shocked South Worcestershire Supt Kevin Purcell who said the figures showed victims were brave enough to come forward.
“We do our best to deal with reports properly, that should and definitely does include rape,” he said.
“The concept of ‘we don’t believe them until someone is charged’ is probably set 30 years ago.”
Coun Amos apologised for the comments on Monday (September 19) and said he didn’t intend to offend but ‘shine further light on these alarming figures’.
“In my efforts to raise this issue and interrogate the statistics, it appears I may have confused some of my views on the subject.
“I therefore want to be absolutely clear – rape and serious sexual offences are horrendous acts which ruin people’s lives, and we as a society, need to fully support these victims to come forward and report them,” he added.
Despite his apology, Labour group leader Coun Peter McDonald called on Coun Amos to resign and said ‘anyone with an ounce of dignity’ would do so.
“Alan Amos’s remarks that, it is too easy for women to report rape, is hurtful and has caused a great deal of upset to anyone who has been raped and has had to go through the ordeal of reporting it,” he said.
“The remarks were not made at the spur of the moment or indeed in a heated debated but made in a calculated and cool and rational manner.
“There can be no excuse for such offensive remarks that have no place in a civilised society and only cast doubt on the validity of those who have been assaulted and raped,” he added.
