Super-Complaint Says Police Are Failing Image-Based Abuse Victims

Lawyers from Leigh Day and the Centre for Women's Justice, working with the charity #NotYourPorn, have launched a super-complaint over systemic police failings in responding to image-based abuse. The Guardian

According to research published on 7 October 2026, the complaint draws on survivor testimony and force-level data to argue that the current policing response cannot match the volume or complexity of cases.

In the complaint, image-based abuse means the taking, sharing or creating of intimate content without the survivor's consent, or threatening to do so. The research gathered evidence from 100 people who reported intimate images shared online without their consent. It describes policing in England and Wales as "fragmented, inconsistent and incapable of meeting the scale of the threat."

Data from 39 police forces in England and Wales records charges in an average of just 4.5% of image-based abuse cases last year. In some forces, the rate was lower than 1%.

Home Office data puts 569 charges for image-based abuse in 2025/2026 against almost 25,000 reports to the Revenge Porn Helpline in 2025. Referrals to the helpline increased by more than 4,000% between 2015 and 2025. Women and girls made up 98.9% of reported images of image-based abuse. The Guardian

The super-complaint will be jointly considered by the College of Policing and the Independent Office for Police Conduct. The Centre for Women's Justice is able to bring the complaint as a designated body for police super-complaints, a mechanism for formally raising concerns about widespread or systemic issues in policing. Centre for Women's Justice

The broader context here is the mismatch between reporting and results. A helpline can log tens of thousands of reports. A charge requires identification, evidence preservation across platforms, and a decision that thresholds are met. Think of a busy inbox versus full investigations. For specialists, the figures point to triage, digital capability and consistency across forces rather than a single procedural bottleneck.

Looking at what this means for accountability, the joint consideration matters. The College sets standards and training. The Conduct office examines systemic failure. A super-complaint does not itself order reform. It creates a formal record and compels an institutional response. That response will test whether the issue is framed as resources, doctrine, or the legal and technical difficulty of pursuing online abuse.

In my view, the next point to watch is how success is measured. Charge rates alone do not capture prevention, takedown speed or survivor experience. Yet the numbers cited will anchor expectations for national coordination.