The number of rape cases reported to Avon & Somerset Police in the last year soared by almost half from about 2,000 to just over 3,000.

The shocking increase places the force area higher than anywhere else in the country per thousand of population for the crime, the constabulary's top officer said.

Chief Constable Sarah Crew put the 47 per cent rise in reports down largely to greater confidence from victims in the police to bring charges, which has gone up massively from 3.5 per cent of attacks three years ago to 17.4 per cent, although she said this figure still needed improving.

Speaking during a monthly public grilling by Police & Crime Commissioner Clare Moody about the huge hike in recorded rapes, the officer said: "That is quite staggering. Something is going on."

The chief constable told the Police Question Time session on Thursday, September 12, that the national crime survey suggested there was no such enormous rise in cases in Avon & Somerset, so it was probably caused by much higher levels of reporting than in more rapes.

She said: "The crime survey also tells us that only about one in six people who have experienced rape or asssault by penetration, which is a very simliar offence, actually report to the police.

"So I'm quite confident that for us, that increased reporting is about not so much change in the offending happening in our communities, it's about people being willing to report to the police."

The force pioneered a new way of dealing with rape cases called Operation Bluestone, launched in early 2021 with input from leading academics, where a specialist investigation team was formed, along with better collaboration with victim support services and a focus on perpetrator behaviour rather than victims' credibility.

It has been rolled out to all police forces under the name Operation Soteria.

Chief Constable Crew said it had resulted in big improvements in charge rates.

She said victim support groups were now encouraging victims to come forward even if they initially did not want a case to go to court.

The officer said: "That is very encouraging. From our perspective, there is a strong hypothesis that people have greater confidence in Avon & Somerset Police and they are coming forward."

She said the increase was also partly down to a change in how crime was recorded to make it more accurate and that the statistics now included cases where a victim was raped multiple times during the course of a relationship by the same perpetrator.

The chief constable said: "We call them secondary crimes. We are very confident through the audits we're doing now that we are absolutely capturing every recorded crime.

"So it's a mixture of increased reporting through confidence and increased compliance with the recording regime.

"Every single one of those crimes recorded are overseen by our Operation Bluestone and all investigated by them."

She said 145 officers and staff were part of Operation Bluestone and that all of them needed to be specialist investigators.

The officer said the 17.4 per cent charge rate for rape had been achieved despite an increased number of reports to police and many inexperienced staff undergoing training programmes for the operation.

Chief Constable Crew said some cases involved officers using 'disruption tactics' to reduce the threat of a particular rapist, including undercover work, even if ultimately there was no prosecution.

She said the extra work needed on disruption, along with the specialist investigation team's experience growing over time, gave her confidence that the rates of cases resulting in a charge would continue to improve.