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Top Kalgoorlie cop wants victims to feel comfortable reporting sexual misconduct

Headshot of Amber Lilley
Amber LilleyKalgoorlie Miner
Kalgoorlie Police Station officer-in-charge Neville Beard and Kalgoorlie Miner deputy editor Amber Lilley following her positive interaction with local police after making a report.
Camera IconKalgoorlie Police Station officer-in-charge Neville Beard and Kalgoorlie Miner deputy editor Amber Lilley following her positive interaction with local police after making a report. Credit: WA Police/Supplied

Kalgoorlie-Boulder’s top cop wants victims of sexual offences to feel comfortable visiting the police station and reporting incidents to local officers.

Officer-in-charge Neville Beard — who formerly headed WA Police’s Sex Assault Squad — said the local station had several officers who were former detectives and had experience in speaking to and assisting victims of sexual misconduct.

He said that includes female and male officers who can speak with victims of any gender at any stage after an incident no matter how serious a person may think the offence against them might be seen.

“We really want people to feel comfortable in coming to us because we’ve got so many services we can support people with and I don’t want people to think that we won’t believe them,” he said.

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“No one has the right to touch another person without their consent so it’s as simple as that. I don’t want people to trivialise what’s happened to them because we won’t.

“We don’t want this sort of behaviour going on in town. We want people in the community to feel safe and be able to go out to functions . . . and feel safe to not be assaulted in any way, shape or form.”

The top cop told the Kalgoorlie Miner victims could speak with an officer about a matter, but would not be made to press charges unless they are comfortable in doing so.

“People can either report to us what’s happened and we’ll keep the report on file, and we can take a statement from them in they want to,” he said.

“We won’t force them into prosecuting it because we won’t proceed with a prosecution until they’re comfortable or they give us their agreement to proceed so we can take a report, put it on file and if they don’t want to go ahead, they can think about it and come back.”

Sen. Sgt Beard said if a victim did want to press charges detectives would investigate the case, and help support the victim through the court process as well as refer them to other services.

“A lot of victims of sexual abuse aren’t comfortable coming to police because they don’t know whether we’ll believe them or what sort of services we can provide, and where it put them as a victim,” he said.

“(Seeking help) a really important path in repairing what’s happened to them and getting through what’s happened to them.

“In between prosecuting and going to court obviously there’s that pretty tumultuous time period people have got to go through and going to court itself is a difficult experience as a witness but there’s also victim support services we can put you in touch with an investigating officers will also support people through it too.”

Sen. Sgt Beard told the Kalgoorlie Miner despite how busy officers could be in the Goldfields, officers would always be made available to speak to victims of sexual misconduct.

He also encouraged victims of sexual abuse in the home to come forward and report offences to police.

“We know that there’s a lot that goes on that’s underreported, and I know a lot of victims think that because they’re married to a person they can’t commit and offence against them, but they actually can,” he said.

“You can report it to police, we can investigate it and we can charge the person if there’s sufficient evidence.

“We will support them, that’s what we do. With my history at Sex Assault Squad, I appreciate the importance of victims and I’ve spoken to many victims over my time and it’s really important that they feel supported by us.”

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