A FLAGSHIP new centre to help rape victims recover from their ordeal is to be introduced in Worcester, the Government has announced.

The sexual assault referral centre will provide a one-stop shop for counselling, treatment of injuries, emergency contraception, screening for sexually transmitted disease and the collection of forensic evidence.

Worcester is one of four new places to receive one of the centres by the end of the year as the Government seeks to crack down on rape and sexual assault.

Announcing the initiative, solicitor general Harriet Harman said that, of all violent crime, rape is the least likely to be reported, prosecuted and lead to a conviction.

She said that sexual assault referral centres served to improve conviction rates while supporting the victims.

"It clearly helps the victim, and also the prospects of a successful prosecution where there is a Sexual Assault Referral Centre," she said.

Ms Harman praised existing centres where victims are looked after and given advice, while important forensic evidence is also taken and preserved.

"In many cases it may be by chance, sometimes many years later, that the same DNA will come on to the national database and lead to the apprehension of the victim."

There are currently only 11 Sexual Assault Recovery Centres in the country - three in London and others in Bristol, Leicester, Manchester, Northumbria, Preston, Swindon, Walsall and Dartford.

Pleaded guilty

The solicitor general said today that further centres would be opened in Peterborough, Portsmouth and Derbyshire, as well as Worcester.

The latest Government figures reveal that there were 20 prosecutions for rape in West Mercia in 2002. Twenty-five per cent pleaded guilty and a further 53 per cent were convicted, having pleaded not guilty.