Revenge porn: Sheffield officer forges new police training strategy with helpline team

South Yorkshire Police officer, Police Constable Mark Toyne, has teamed up with the Revenge Porn Helpline to improve training offered to the force’s recruits when dealing with revenge porn reports and combating this type of offending.Revenge porn is the sharing of private, sexual material, either photos or videos, of another person without their consent with the purpose of causing embarrassment or distress and it applies to both online and offline material, and to images shared electronically or in a more traditional way.

Sheffield hate crime coordinator PC Toyne said: “I wanted us to implement training across the force and ensure every officer and every new officer coming in has an understanding of the complexities of this particularly distressing type of crime.”PC Toyne attended an awards ceremony in London when he met South West Grid for Learning representatives who run the Revenge Porn Helpline based in Devon, which is the only charity of its kind supporting victims of this kind of offending – also referred to as intimate image abuse.The charity felt that, nationally, there was an opportunity for police forces to offer more support to victims of revenge pornography.PC Toyne added: “I wanted to show we could give a high level of service. I said I would bring this back to South Yorkshire and tackle it from our perspective.”He involved South Yorkshire Police’s Violence Against Women and Girls Strategic Lead, Nat Shaw, and the force’s training department in the new training strategy to help officers deal with revenge pornography reports.The Revenge Porn Helpline sourced training materials for South Yorkshire Police officers and staff and helped to create a short film demonstrating the importance of offering the right support and guidance to victims.

This strategy has now been incorporated into all ‘Continuing Professional Development’ training in a bid to ensure victims feel fully supported.PC Toyne contacted officers investigating such offences and shared the helpline so victims could be signposted directly to them.He added the relationship with South West Grid for Learning has already shaped better training.

PC Toyne said: “It’s been great and they’re now involved with us and have helped shape our training. They’ve linked in with the sexual exploitation team too so it’s been a really positive piece of work. I wanted to show we are supportive and understanding. That’s what motivated me to do it.”

PC Toyne now intends to share the training nationally to improve the support for all victims.

Hayley Laskey, revenge porn helpline practitioner at SWGfL, said: “After meeting Mark in London and discussing what we do on our helplines it was clear he was determined to make some change in any way he could. Mark’s eagerness to help and support is invaluable.

“We want to thank Mark for taking this time to give us a voice on his platform and enable us to talk about the issues surrounding intimate image abuse, online harms, and how we think the police can best support victims moving forward. We hope that this training can raise greater awareness within South Yorkshire Police and beyond.”

For information on the support SWGfL offers to victims, visit https://swgfl.org.uk/.