FOI 464314
FREEDOM OF INFORMATION REQUEST REFERENCE NO: 464314
I write in connection with your request for information which was received on 20th March 2026. Please find below the response to your request:
For the period 1 January 2021 to 28 February 2026, please provide:
The total number of rape and sexual assault crimes recorded that include the tag ‘online’, ‘virtual reality’, ‘VR’ or ‘virtual’.
The total number of rape and sexual assault crimes recorded including the tag ‘metaverse’, ‘meta’, ‘Roblox’, or ‘Fortnite’.
The gender and age of any victims - if unable to be specific then under 10, under 13, under 16, under 18, or 18+ is acceptable.
Whether these crimes resulted in any investigation (and if this is ongoing), arrests, charges, prosecutions, and convictions.
Reply
West Mercia Police hold information in relation to your request.
Caveat: The request is for crimes which include specified “tags”. The West Mercia Police crime management system does not have “tags”. However, we do use keywords which are linked to an investigation where the circumstances of the offence match the keyword definition. There is an “online crime” keyword which is linked to any crimes which meet the Home Office definition of “An offence should be flagged where any element of the offence was committed online or through internet-based activities (e.g through email, social media, websites, messaging platforms, gaming platforms or smart devices).”
There are no keywords for the other “tags” specified in the request, however they may be included within the incident summary. Therefore, searches have been completed for all relevant offences which have the ADR keyword of “Online Crime”. A second search was for crimes which include “Virtual” or “VR” in the incident summary. A third search was for crimes which include “Meta”, “Roblox” or “Fortnite” within the incident summary. (please note that none of returned crimes contained Roblox or Fortnite).
Crimes may have been returned in one or more of the three searches; within the issue table the total has been broken down by which individual search or group of searches the crime was included in meaning each crime has only been counted once.
Regarding the gender and age of the victims. Some investigations may not have a linked victim; some may have more than 1 and some victims may be linked to multiple investigations. Each victim has been counted once for each investigation they are linked to. The age of the victim is calculated at the start of the alleged offence. If the offending took place over a period of time or the offence is historic it may not be the age of the victim at the time of reporting. This data is presented as recorded on our system, there may be data errors either in the date of the offence, ie occurred 2012 rather than 2021 or a date of birth being recorded as 1909 rather than 1990.
Outcomes of the investigations have also been provided. Our system allows one outcome to be linked to each investigation, where an investigation has more than one suspect and different actions are taken the investigation is closed with the highest level of outcome showing. As with victims some suspects may be linked to more than one investigation. The number of each outcome type does therefore not necessarily mean the number of persons who were dealt with in each method. We are unable to extract this information from the crime management system. Please note that West Mercia Police do not hold conviction data, this is held by the courts.
|
All crimes recorded within the Primary Offence Group of Sexual Offences broken down by linked keyword or word included within incident summary shown by outcome of investigation |
Other Sexual Offences |
Rape |
Total |
||
|
ADR Online Crime Keyword |
2313 |
52 |
2365 |
||
|
Type 1 - Charged/Summonsed/Postal Requisition |
208 |
9 |
217 |
||
|
Type 1A - Charged/Summons - alternate offence. Offender has been charged under the alternate offence rule. |
61 |
61 |
|||
|
Type 2 - Caution Youth |
2 |
2 |
|||
|
Type 2A - Caution Youth - alternate offence. Offender is a juvenile and has been given a youth caution under the alternate offences rule. |
1 |
1 |
|||
|
Type 3 - Caution Adult |
4 |
4 |
|||
|
Type 3A - Caution Adult - alternate offence. Offender has been given a simple caution under the alternate offences rule. |
1 |
1 |
|||
|
Adult Caution - conditional |
1 |
1 |
|||
|
Type 8 - Community resolution (Crime) |
1 |
1 |
|||
|
Type 9 - Prosecution Not In the Public Interest (CPS) |
1 |
1 |
|||
|
Type 10 - Formal Action Against Offender is not in the Public Interest (Police) |
2 |
2 |
|||
|
Type 11 - Prosecution Prevented-Named Suspect Identified But Is Below The Age Of Criminal Responsibility |
3 |
3 |
|||
|
Type 12 - Prosecution Prevented-Named Suspect Identified But Is Too Ill (Physical Or Mental Health) To Prosecute, or confirmed died either before crime reported or before enough evidence to charge |
4 |
4 |
|||
|
Type 13 - Prosecution Prevented-Named Suspect Identified But Victim Or Key Witness Is Dead Or Too Ill To Give Evidence |
1 |
1 |
|||
|
Type 14 - Evidential Difficulties Victim Based- Suspect Not Identified: Crime Confirmed But The Victim Either Declines Or Unable To Support Further Police Investigation To Identify The Offender |
317 |
3 |
320 |
||
|
Type 15 - Named Suspect Identified: Victim Supports Police Action But Evidential Difficulties Prevent Further Action |
377 |
10 |
387 |
||
|
Type 16 - Named Suspect Identified: Evidential Difficulties Prevent Further Action: Victim Does Not Support (Or Has Withdrawn Support From) Police Action |
402 |
22 |
424 |
||
|
Type 17 - Prosecution Time Limit Expired: Suspect Identified But Prosecution Time Limit Has Expired |
4 |
4 |
|||
|
Type 18 - Investigation Complete; No Suspect Identified. Crime Investigated As Far As Reasonably Possible-Case Closed Pending Further Investigative Opportunities Becoming Available |
590 |
590 |
|||
|
Type 20 - Further action resulting from the crime report will be undertaken by another body or agency subject to the victim (or person acting on their behalf) being made aware of the act to be taken |
23 |
23 |
|||
|
Type 21 - Further investigation resulting from crime report which could provide evidence sufficient to support formal action against the suspect is not in the public interest - police decision. |
60 |
60 |
|||
|
Type 22 - Diversionary, educational or intervention activity, resulting from the crime report, has been undertaken and it is not in the public interest to take any further action. |
56 |
56 |
|||
|
Ongoing Investigation |
194 |
8 |
202 |
||
|
ADR Online Crime Keyword, Meta Verse (Incident Summary) |
32 |
32 |
|||
|
Type 14 - Evidential Difficulties Victim Based- Suspect Not Identified: Crime Confirmed But The Victim Either Declines Or Unable To Support Further Police Investigation To Identify The Offender |
6 |
6 |
|||
|
Type 16 - Named Suspect Identified: Evidential Difficulties Prevent Further Action: Victim Does Not Support (Or Has Withdrawn Support From) Police Action |
5 |
5 |
|||
|
Type 18 - Investigation Complete; No Suspect Identified. Crime Investigated As Far As Reasonably Possible-Case Closed Pending Further Investigative Opportunities Becoming Available |
17 |
17 |
|||
|
Type 20 - Further action resulting from the crime report will be undertaken by another body or agency subject to the victim (or person acting on their behalf) being made aware of the act to be taken |
1 |
1 |
|||
|
Type 22 - Diversionary, educational or intervention activity, resulting from the crime report, has been undertaken and it is not in the public interest to take any further action. |
1 |
1 |
|||
|
Ongoing Investigation |
2 |
2 |
|||
|
ADR Online Crime Keyword, Virtual Reality (Incident Summary) |
1 |
1 |
|||
|
Type 14 - Evidential Difficulties Victim Based- Suspect Not Identified: Crime Confirmed But The Victim Either Declines Or Unable To Support Further Police Investigation To Identify The Offender |
1 |
1 |
|||
|
ADR Online Crime Keyword, Virtual Reality (incident summary, Meta Verse (Incident Summary) |
1 |
1 |
|||
|
Type 14 - Evidential Difficulties Victim Based- Suspect Not Identified: Crime Confirmed But The Victim Either Declines Or Unable To Support Further Police Investigation To Identify The Offender |
1 |
1 |
|||
|
Meta Verse (incident summary) |
21 |
12 |
33 |
||
|
Type 1 - Charged/Summonsed/Postal Requisition |
4 |
2 |
6 |
||
|
Type 11 - Prosecution Prevented-Named Suspect Identified But Is Below The Age Of Criminal Responsibility |
1 |
1 |
|||
|
Type 13 - Prosecution Prevented-Named Suspect Identified But Victim Or Key Witness Is Dead Or Too Ill To Give Evidence |
1 |
1 |
|||
|
Type 14 - Evidential Difficulties Victim Based- Suspect Not Identified: Crime Confirmed But The Victim Either Declines Or Unable To Support Further Police Investigation To Identify The Offender |
1 |
1 |
|||
|
Type 15 - Named Suspect Identified: Victim Supports Police Action But Evidential Difficulties Prevent Further Action |
2 |
3 |
5 |
||
|
Type 16 - Named Suspect Identified: Evidential Difficulties Prevent Further Action: Victim Does Not Support (Or Has Withdrawn Support From) Police Action |
8 |
5 |
13 |
||
|
Type 18 - Investigation Complete; No Suspect Identified. Crime Investigated As Far As Reasonably Possible-Case Closed Pending Further Investigative Opportunities Becoming Available |
1 |
2 |
3 |
||
|
Type 20 - Further action resulting from the crime report will be undertaken by another body or agency subject to the victim (or person acting on their behalf) being made aware of the act to be taken |
1 |
1 |
|||
|
Ongoing Investigation |
2 |
2 |
|||
|
Virtual Reality (Incident Summary) |
1 |
1 |
|||
|
Type 20 - Further action resulting from the crime report will be undertaken by another body or agency subject to the victim (or person acting on their behalf) being made aware of the act to be taken |
1 |
1 |
|||
|
Grand Total |
2369 |
64 |
2433 |
|
All crimes recorded within the Primary Offence Group of Sexual Offences broken down by linked keyword or word included within incident summary shown by age of linked victims |
Other Sexual Offences |
Rape |
Total |
||
|
ADR Online Crime Keyword |
1848 |
51 |
1899 |
||
|
10 & Under |
164 |
1 |
165 |
||
|
Female |
123 |
123 |
|||
|
Male |
37 |
1 |
38 |
||
|
Not Listed |
4 |
4 |
|||
|
Under 13 |
424 |
3 |
427 |
||
|
Female |
332 |
1 |
333 |
||
|
Male |
85 |
2 |
87 |
||
|
Not Listed |
7 |
7 |
|||
|
Under 16 |
894 |
5 |
899 |
||
|
Female |
698 |
5 |
703 |
||
|
Male |
179 |
179 |
|||
|
Unknown |
17 |
17 |
|||
|
Under 18 |
91 |
8 |
99 |
||
|
Female |
61 |
8 |
69 |
||
|
Male |
29 |
29 |
|||
|
Not Listed |
1 |
1 |
|||
|
18 & Above |
275 |
34 |
309 |
||
|
Female |
200 |
34 |
234 |
||
|
Male |
67 |
67 |
|||
|
Not Listed |
8 |
8 |
|||
|
ADR Online Crime Keyword, Meta Verse (Incident Summary) |
31 |
31 |
|||
|
10 & Under |
8 |
8 |
|||
|
Female |
6 |
6 |
|||
|
Male |
2 |
2 |
|||
|
Under 13 |
9 |
9 |
|||
|
Female |
8 |
8 |
|||
|
(blank) |
1 |
1 |
|||
|
Under 16 |
13 |
13 |
|||
|
Female |
8 |
8 |
|||
|
Male |
5 |
5 |
|||
|
Under 18 |
1 |
1 |
|||
|
Female |
1 |
1 |
|||
|
ADR Online Crime Keyword, Virtual Reality (incident summary, Meta Verse (Incident Summary) |
1 |
1 |
|||
|
Under 13 |
1 |
1 |
|||
|
Female |
1 |
1 |
|||
|
Meta Verse (incident summary) |
22 |
12 |
34 |
||
|
10 & Under |
6 |
6 |
|||
|
Female |
5 |
5 |
|||
|
Male |
1 |
1 |
|||
|
Under 13 |
2 |
2 |
|||
|
Female |
1 |
1 |
|||
|
Male |
1 |
1 |
|||
|
Under 16 |
5 |
2 |
7 |
||
|
Female |
4 |
2 |
6 |
||
|
Not Listed |
1 |
1 |
|||
|
Under 18 |
2 |
1 |
3 |
||
|
Female |
1 |
1 |
2 |
||
|
Male |
1 |
1 |
|||
|
18 & Above |
7 |
9 |
16 |
||
|
Female |
3 |
7 |
10 |
||
|
Male |
4 |
2 |
6 |
||
|
Grand Total |
1902 |
63 |
1965 |