Derbyshire Police dogs trained to put more sexual offenders behind bars

• Charlotte Horner had exclusive access to a training session with Derbyshire Police's Dog Section team at the forensic house at the University of Derby

Two new police dogs and their handlers have completed training with Derbyshire Police in the hope of putting more sexual offenders behind bars.

While many dogs are trained to detect explosives, drugs or blood PD Rosie and PD April have joined PD Sybil the only working police dogs in the UK trained to specifically detect seminal fluid.

Their noses can detect as little as 0.016ml of fluid, sometimes even years after it has been deposited, which the force says has been a game changer in sexual offence investigations.

The joint project between Derbyshire Crime Scene Investigators and the Dog Section began back in 2015.

Cocker Spaniel PD Bille was the first police dog to undergo the training, but he retired from the force in 2020.

He was replaced by PD Sybil, who is now joined by PD Rosie and April.

Derbyshire Police Dog Section trainer, PC Dean Allen says:

"Crime scene investigators were concerned that they were struggling to find evidence, especially minute evidence of seminal fluid in crime scenes, leading to a lot of scenes not producing the results they wanted".

"They approached Dog Section and asked us whether we could assist by training a dog that could find that stuff for them so they can forensically recover it."

This training is taking place at the forensic house at the University of Derby, which is normally used by students studying forensics.

When in use by the Dog Section for training, a tiny amount of seminal fluid is planted in various locations and the dogs search for it.

When they detect the fluid, they let their handlers know by stopping and staring at the position.

In real crime scene investigations, a forensic team will then take samples from the positions pointed out by the dogs - often providing tiny amounts of evidence that would otherwise have been missed.

"Wherever practically these offences could happen is where we have to train so the dogs are ready and the handlers are ready in that eventuality", says PC Allen.

When the dogs have finished searching the floor and any evidence has been forensically removed they will then be tasked to search other areas.

"We can be searching the walls, the beds, the door handles, the light switches, anything where transference from offenders fingers or from the actual offence itself could have occurred."

"We've found seminal fluid in some very bizarre places in the past operationally, so never say never, we make sure they're thorough in what they do", he adds.

Sexual offence crimes are top of the agenda for many police forces across the country but, due to a number of reasons, prosecution numbers remain relatively low compared to reports.

In the year up to June, the Office for National Statistics recorded a record-breaking 194,683 sexual assaults.

According to the latest annual Crown Prosecution Service data, charges were only brought about in 2,385 rape cases.

1300 rape cases were reported to the CPS during a three-month period from April to June, but only around one-third of these led to convictions.

The Derbyshire team says the work with the dogs is helping to bring more cases against offenders.

They say it can be tough but their work is incredibly rewarding, with Crime Scene Investigators often telling them they wouldn't have found the evidence if it wasn't for the dogs.

"We've got historical jobs all the way back to when we started the project and proof of the concept that this is working", says PC Dean Allen.

"The evidence we're finding, the minute evidence, is easily traceable back to a specific person who has hen got to explain why their seminal fluid was found at a crime scene that we're investigating".

Man's best friend, an offender's worst enemy.