My disclosure was initially made to the local police force in the area the offences had taken place. I didn't particularly want to speak to anyone, so I found a Web form to fill in (by googling the area plus "police email"), and very briefly summarised the nature of my allegation. There were various options for contact details - email, address, phone numbers, etc, which I also filled in.
The form had said it was not to be used for reporting a crime, but I chose to ignore that, as I didn't feel like discussing it over the phone with a possibly sceptical and unsympathetic police officer.
The next weekday, I got a call from my local police, with a message from a sergeant asking me to get in touch to arrange to go to the local station to make a statement.
I was particularly struck by several things. Firstly, he was consistently going out of his way to be reassuring: given my general view of, and experience with, the police, this was surprising to me. Secondly, it was clearly a priority to get this done ASAP: he changed his shift in order to get it done as fast as possible.
(continued...)
When I got down to the police station (which, being a satellite station in a rural area, was closed), I was met by the sergeant, who continued to be very - verging on the painfully - supportive, offered a cup of tea, etc. Then we sat down and he, quite painstakingly, explained the procedure. I think I made his job a little easier when I explained that, as part of my professional role, child protection was something I was familiar with - and I think that background and knowledge probably helped me, too.
I then spent two hours giving my statement. To some extent, he directed the process by asking questions which I answered: it was clear that he wasn't much of a typist, so he took very brief notes while I spoke, then went back to the computer and typed them in to the statement, offering me the option to correct or amend what he was writing as the process went along.
I was asked for details of what had occurred, the timeframe (ie ages between), and an indication of the number of incidents, etc. Obviously, given the amount of time that has passed, there were many things I could not be completely specific about, but that seemed perfectly acceptable, and the statement contained quite a few "I think that I recall..." entries. I was also asked for as detailed a description of the circumstances, layout of house, description of room, that I could give, as he told me that in the absence of corroboration (this being a historical case), the local police would probably visit the premises and attempt to corroborate my description with the reality. Fortunately, I was able to remember addresses and give detailed descriptions of the rooms. He also wanted physical descriptions of the people I was making allegations against, which I was a little less clear on, strangely.
One thing that I was surprised by was the way in which he frequently returned to my perceptions of the effect that the offences I was alleging to have taken place had had on me, both at the time, and subsequently - I think I was expecting the process to be far more fact-based and clunkily procedural than that. We went into some detail as to what those effects had been, and a significant part of the statement covered them. He told me at the end that it was usual to complete a "Victim Impact Statement" as well as a statement of allegations, but that in this case we had covered both at the same time, hence his interest in the effects - the impact statement is read out in court (assuming it gets that far) following conviction and is considered during the sentencing process.
The final two questions he asked me were "Why did you wait so long to report it?", and "Why now?". He seemed quite satisfied that my reason for not making disclosure earlier was a feeling that it would not be taken seriously, and a desire not to rake it all up again, and as my reason for making the statement now I mentioned the Savile case, the discussions on this thread (he was quite exercised about the idea that investigating historical abuse cases was a "waste of resources", hem hem hem), and that those had prompted me to Google the perpetrator and discover that he was a) still alive, and b) had already been convicted of some offences.
One slightly amusing bit was that when he had asked me these questions, and got very comprehensive answers from me, he pushed the keyboard over to me and said "You'd better type that in - I think you can do a much better job of putting it into words than me". I ended up not only doing that, but spell-checking and tweaking the rest of the statement.
I was then given a couple of leaflets (which I haven't read yet) about the process. He informed me that the next step was for the statement to go back to the investigating force, who would almost certainly arrest the parties against whom I had made allegations, and interview them under caution. He was careful to point out that it may not go any further, and that I should not anticipate that it would go to court or result in conviction - although he seemed quite keen on the idea that I might want to face my abuser(s) in court! - but that at the very least they would be aware that an allegation had been made and was being treated seriously.
And that was it: I came out of the police station, 2½ hours and two cups of tea later, picked up a takeaway curry, and came home. Drained
I do hope that if there is anyone out there who is in the situation I was in, of having been on the receiving end of offences perpetrated so long ago (in my case, we're talking about offences that started 40 years ago, in the early 1970s), they will feel encouraged to report them. I do wish I had made allegations at the time (although both the police officer and I agreed that it was likely they would not have been taken as seriously then as they would be now), and I certainly wish that I had gone to the police 20 years ago when the repressed memories of what had happened began to return. Some of the offences for which one of the perpetrators was convicted took place after that point, and I am somewhat troubled by the idea that, had I reported them sooner, some children might have been spared my experiences.
I may have been lucky in getting a particularly helpful police officer, but I did get the impression that, organisationally, the police are a LOT more willing to take allegations of abuse - even historical ones - seriously, now, and I would urge anyone who is not sure to consider making a disclosure.
I have deliberately gone very light on details here, for all kinds of reasons, but if anyone wants a bit more encouragement or information, feel free to PM me and I'll do what I can.
