London’s Metropolitan police will close down pubs and clubs where sexual assaults take place in an experiment aimed at cutting the number of rapes committed, the Guardian reported on Thursday.
Under plans set out by Detective Chief Superintendent Mick Duthie, the new head of the force’s sex crime unit, officers will also be able to target men never convicted of rape, but who are suspected of being perpetrators.
“If you were in Lewisham High Street at night and someone had a glass or bottle stuck in their neck, we would use the licensing legislation to close that place down,” he told the Guardian.
“But until now we haven’t done that for sexual offences.
“We are looking at areas that generate high levels of sexual offences, identifying nightclubs or pubs where this might happen, and which we can link back to rapes and use the licensing laws against these premises,” he added.
Duthie admitted that new covert tactics will make little impact on the number of rape convictions, but hoped that they would keep potential rapists off the streets through other offences.
Police will use licensing laws to tackle rape
