Rape conviction rate 'embarrassing' says senior Sussex officer

• Watch exclusive report by ITV Meridian's Christine Alsford

Rape is the most personal and traumatic of crimes - yet successful prosecution rates are incredibly low: in most places less than five per cent of cases will end in a conviction.

For Sussex Police the rate is 3% - and that's an enormous source of frustration to the plain clothes officers working on the frontline to bring more sexual predators to justice.

Detective Inspector Amanda Zinyama is based at Littlehampton Police Station and leads a specialist team of officers who investigate sexual offences.

"It's embarrassing that we are only convicting three per cent of rape cases when that's 80 per cent of the work that we do," she said.

"It isn't a reflection of the hard work that goes in to these investigations and I think anything we can do to improve that - everyone's on board."

• Detective Inspector Amanda Zinyama

But the pressures are great - each detective in her team is juggling between 20 and 30 complex investigations.

"That is a big increase to what it used to be. Unfortunately that means that they don't have the time to spend that they need to be spending on each individual investigation.

"I need more detectives - and that is the bottom line."

Sussex is working on a series of initiatives to improve the number of cases they solve.

They are trying to speed things up massively - ensuring they involve the Crown Prosecution service at an earlier stage - and focus on the most relevant lines of enquiry.

It means hundreds of investigations that typically would have run for a year before officers spoke to the CPS are now being done inside 6 weeks.

In line with new national rules, Sussex Police are now downloading the content from victim's phones more quickly too.

Senior Officer Detective Superintendent Jon Hull says his ambition is to increase the number of rape prosecutions to double figures.

"The burden of proof is high - it's beyond reasonable doubt so that can be challenging to achieve.

• Senior Officer Detective Superintendent Jon Hull

"What we do want to see is an improvement in the charge rate that we're seeing.

"This is high harm crime - we need to make sure that the service that we offer is right."

Earlier this week the Labour party pledged to set up specialist rape courts to speed up justice for victims.

Some victims drop out of pursuing legal action because of backlogs and delays. Some cases take four years to get to court.

Sussex Police have a groundbreaking scheme to support victims throughout any investigation.

They have invested heavily in 24 special officers that liaise with survivors all the way through the case - giving them updates and support.

The officers are called SOITs which stands for Sexual Offences Investigation Team officers and their work is making a real difference..

We spent the day with SOIT officer Sarah Sebastian who works out of Brighton Police Station.

She told us: "It's certainly recognised that victims need extra support throughout an investigation and that consistent point of contact."

"It's really difficult when you don't see something progress to court as you would hope for the victim. What's also important and what people often say is that the way they are supported and feeling that they have been heard and ultimately we have tried our best to get things through that process for them can be just as important."

Anyone who needs support regarding a rape or sexual assault can contact rape crisis or access their local Sexual Assault Referral Centre via the NHS.