THOUSANDS of rapes and sexual assaults have taken place in hospitals across the UK, new data has revealed.

Reading University Professor Jo Phoenix has spoken out about the data released by the Women's Rights Network (WRN) where she is a member.

Figures uncovered by WRN show that over the past four years, thousands of women have been raped or sexually assaulted in hospitals, with just four per cent of the offenders being charged.

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Of the 6,539 rapes and sexual assaults reported to police, only 265 people have been charged or summonsed.

Professor Phoenix, who teaches criminology, has described the figures as a ‘national disgrace’.

Writing in the Daily Mail, she said: “Hospitals are meant to be safe places for people when they are at their most vulnerable. 

“Many patients are incapacitated due to illness or medication. Some will be unconscious.

“But with staff coming and going at all hours, outsiders confined to the set visiting hours and CCTV cameras in operation, family and friends are entitled to believe that their nearest and dearest are being cared for in a secure environment.

“Nothing could be further from the truth.”

The data from WRN was accessed from police forces under a Freedom of Information request. It covers the period of the coronavirus pandemic.

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Professor Phoenix wrote that it has taken a while for the offences to ‘come to light’ due to hospitals not being one of the categories specified in the police's reporting procedures with attacks in hospitals being logged under the heading 'somewhere else'.

“Not only is there something deeply dismissive about this term but, as the WRN has discovered, it means that rapes and sexual assaults carried out in hospitals are not even being counted separately,” wrote Professor Phoenix.

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Have you been attacked in a hospital? Write to: gee.harland@newsquest.co.uk