A YORK woman who alleges she was sexually assaulted in her home by a telephone engineer has received an apology from a police chief over the way her attempts to report the allegations were handled.

Openreach says it has launched an investigation into the woman’s assault allegations against one of its engineers - and the man concerned will not be working again until it has concluded those inquiries.

The woman said it took more than four hours to get through to North Yorkshire Police after the alleged incident involving an Openreach engineer on March 30, after ringing 101 in accordance with force rules as the incident was not ongoing.

She said that although she eventually rang 999, she was then told officers were too busy dealing with drunk and disorderly incidents to come round straight away.

“I was told that unless the event was underway at the time of the call then, although I felt strongly about it, they were simply too busy with other calls,” she said.

“Officers were dispatched but took nearly 90 minutes to arrive because they were deployed elsewhere three times due to further drunken incidents, so it was 1.05 am when they arrived and 4am when they left. Not ideal after the ordeal I had been through.”

She claimed such calls to police should be identified by serving officers, not civilians, to avoid poor response times and ‘irresponsible’ prioritising of calls, and said she was also unhappy about the standard of the police investigation to date.

Phil Cain, Deputy Chief Constable of North Yorkshire Police, said its handling of the woman’s calls to the force ‘fell far short of the level of service we would expect to provide, and caused her further distress.’

He said he recognised that she experienced significant difficulty getting through to the police and had urgently reviewed how her calls were dealt with, and the force had ‘identified learning to help us improve our call handling response in such situations in future.’He added that he would be writing to her personally to apologise.

He said: “We take all reports of sexual offences extremely seriously, and always aim to treat victims with dignity and respect.The victim initially called us on 101 and used the ‘queue buster’ function to request a call back when an operator was free.

“We were experiencing an exceptionally high number of calls on March 30 – for example, the number of 999 calls that day was more than 80 per cent higher than normal demand – and the victim did not receive a timely call back.

“Instead, she dialled 999, and was given advice to ring back on 101, which on review we recognise should not have happened, but at which point full details were taken and an officer deployed as a priority to speak to the victim in person.

“We would always encourage anyone who has been affected by sexual offences to come forward and make a report to us. We have specially-trained officers who will guide victims through the process, and we work closely with a number of partner agencies to ensure all victims receive the vital support and advice they need.”

Julia Mulligan, North Yorkshire Police, Fire and Crime Commissioner, said she was extremely concerned to hear about the victim’s experience after reporting a crime to the force. “I have asked for an urgent review of what happened, and why,” she said.

A force spokesman said that following inquiries, a man had been arrested on suspicion of sexual offences in connection with the incident.

“He has been released on bail and the investigation is continuing,” he added.

The man denies the allegations.

A spokesperson for Openreach said it had launched an investigation into the allegations and the engineer concerned would not be working again until it has concluded those inquiries.

They said: “We are aware of a serious allegation against an engineer and will fully support any police investigation as well as conducting a thorough internal enquiry. As this is a police matter we cannot comment further at this time.”

Openreach, a digital network business, says on its website that it aims to provide reliable broadband to people at work and at home and it has 33,000 engineers who visit thousands of customers every day, who are ‘brand ambassadors’ and the ‘face of Openreach.’

It says: “They work hard every day to make sure our service provider customers - and their customers - get the best possible service. And we’re making real progress on that front.”

Openreach launches Investigation

OPENREACH says it has launched an investigation into the woman’s assault allegations against one of its engineers - and the man concerned will not be working again until it has concluded those inquiries.

The digital network business says on its website that it aims to provide reliable broadband to people at work and at home and it has 33,000 engineers who visit thousands of customers every day, who are ‘brand ambassadors’ and the ‘face of Openreach.’

It says: “They work hard every day to make sure our service provider customers - and their customers - get the best possible service. And we’re making real progress on that front.”

Following inquiries by The Press about the assault allegations, a spokesperson said: “We are aware of a serious allegation against an engineer and will fully support any police investigation as well as conducting a thorough internal inquiry.

“We have launched an investigation into the allegations and the engineer will not be working until we have concluded the investigation.

“As this is a police matter we cannot comment further.”

North Yorkshire Police said that following inquiries, a man had been arrested on suspicion of sexual offences in connection with the incident.

“He has been released on bail and the investigation is continuing,” added a spokesman.