THE CITY’S new senior police officer said tackling physical and sexual violence against women and girls was a top priority.

It comes as Oxford students are preparing to boycott bars and nightclubs across the city on Wednesday in protest against drink spiking.

Supt Bruce Riddell, the new Thames Valley Police commander for Oxford, said he wanted to leave the city a safer place.

And he said that following Sarah Everard’s kidnap, rape and murder by Metropolitan Police officer Wayne Couzens, he was telling his constables to be ‘conscious’ that some would be nervous about being approached by a lone male PC. Couzens faked Ms Everard’s arrest, luring her into a van.

Oxford Mail:

Supt Bruce Riddell, area commander for Oxford 

The superintendent said: “We have offered people a simple process where they can contact the control room to check an officer’s identity.

“Here, we do have some officers working in plain clothes but we’ve asked them at the moment [to ensure] there’s normally always two together or we’ll mix it so it’s a male and a female officer in plain clothes together.”

Tackling sexual violence and violence against women and girls was ‘key’, Supt Riddell said.

The police and council have been handed £426,000 by the government to make the city’s streets safer.

Oxford Mail: File photo dated 13/3/2021 of people in the crowd turn on their phone torches as they gather in Clapham Common, London, for a vigil for Sarah Everard. Former Metropolitan Police officer Wayne Couzens, 48, will appear at the Old Bailey in London, on the

File photo of people in the crowd turn on their phone torches as they gather in Clapham Common, London, for a vigil for Sarah Everard

Among the initiatives that will be trialled are ‘safe spaces’, where women out at night can go.

“It’s slightly unfortunate we need to supply a safe space, because I would like the whole of the city centre to be a safe space,” he acknowledged.

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Supt Riddell added: “The public should be able to go out in Oxford, go out in the city and feel it’s a safe place. I go out in Oxford and I do feel it is a safe place. It’s responding to what we should be supplying.”

As a detective chief inspector for Oxford CID, he led the investigation – called Operation Blizzard – that brought Cowley prowler Nelson Soares to justice.

Oxford Mail:

Nelson Soares' mugshot Picture: TVP

Soares was jailed for 10 years in 2020 after a spate of sex crimes across east Oxford and Headington. The spree began with the 28-year-old flashing women in the Cowley Road area, but took an even more sinister turn as he started breaking into people’s homes – on one occasion taking a nude selfie as a victim slept in her own bed.

As part of the investigation, Thames Valley Police launched Project Vigilant – an operation that saw plain clothes and uniformed officers patrol Oxford night spots to identify potential sexual predators. The initiative has since been rolled out across England.

Speaking to the Oxford Mail, Supt Riddell named the investigation into Soares as the most rewarding of his 25 year career with the police.

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