Sadiq Khan responds to London Stalking Review

Transcript

00:00Well, I've been in touch with Claire Waxman, the Independent Victims Commissioner that I appointed

00:04when I first became Mayor. She told me how invaluable the work of the Mayor's Office

00:09of Policing and Crime was to the research that led to our report today. I think it's

00:13really important we understand there is a national epidemic of violence against women and girls.

00:17That's what's been said by Maggie Blyth, the Deputy Chief Constable, who looks into this

00:22nationally. I thought it's an increase in violence against women. Stalking is part of that. Some of

00:27the failures in the criminal justice system that Claire Waxman has highlighted need to be addressed.

00:33Jess Phillips, the Safeguarding Minister, has accepted the criticism that Claire has made of

00:37criminal justice system. Consequence, yes, of austerity, but also consequence of society not

00:43addressing these issues. Prevention and early intervention is really important. The public

00:48health approach is really important. You know, children growing up thinking Andrew Tate is saying

00:51sensible things. Children growing up thinking it's okay to treat girls a certain way seeps into

00:57when boys become men. But also when women report stalking, it's not being addressed by the police.

01:02And so a number of issues from that to also what happens when somebody is charged and it reaches

01:08court. If somebody's taken two, three years before there's a trial, don't be surprised if the attrition

01:13rates are so high. How do you realise that the problem was as bad as the report suggests it is?

01:17One of the reasons why Claire undertook her interviews, we were concerned about some of the

01:21stories that we were hearing in relation to stalking. One of the reasons why the Police

01:26Service set up these stalking centres in our police station, in our BCUs and the apprentice units

01:31was because of the concerns they had. But the work Claire has done is they're in black and white for

01:36everyone to see. This is not just my views or individual officers. This is the view based

01:40upon looking at the evidence.