All Doncaster women at risk of sexual assault in their lifetime, top police chief says

Former South Yorkshire Police chief superintendent Natalie Shaw, the force’s strategic lead for violence against women and girls, says it is a sad reality that all women will experience some sort of violence during their lives.

For Natalie, it was only when she watched her own daughter reach adulthood, and start going out to pubs and clubs, that this stomach-churning fact really hit home.

"I was chatting to my friends and we realised that we had all been sexually assaulted within our lifetime," says Natalie, the force's new strategic lead for violence against women and girls.

"We had accepted it as part of growing up. I don't want that same experience for my daughter, or for my daughter's daughters. I accepted what happened to me - but I will not accept that for her."

Natalie has returned to the force in a staff role to lead the SYP response to this societal issue, and work with partners to make South Yorkshire communities a safe place for women.

"There's a reason women go to the toilet in pairs," she says. "There's a reason why I tell my daughter to put her finger over bottle tops in clubs, why I tell her to stay on the phone during a taxi journey until she makes it home safely, why I tell her to walk the longer route home with the better lighting.

"I didn't have any of those conversations with my son when he was the same age."

Natalie, who is mum to a 23-year-old son and 21-year-old daughter, joined the police straight from school in 1989. In a high-flying career she found her niche within the world of PVP (Protecting Vulnerable People).

"I'd been in policing for 18 years as a PC and Sergeant, then I was asked to go into the Public Protection Unit in Doncaster, which basically dealt with things people didn't want to think about - child abuse, adult abuse, child neglect and so on," she recalls.

"I was completely wowed. The things they were dealing with, and the breadth of it - I couldn't get my head around how good that team was. I'd been in the police for 18 years but I felt I had finally found my place, found where I wanted to be.

"When you get a good outcome - a child is made safe or an offender is prosecuted - it really hits home to me."

Natalie retired in 2019 but jumped at the chance to return in this new role at a crucial time, when the nation is still reeling following the tragic murders of women including Sarah Everard and Sabina Nessa.

"The conversation has started but it's terrible that it's taken such events," Natalie says.

"The outrage around these murders is the correct level of outrage - it can't be acceptable in our society that nine out of ten women who are murdered are murdered by men. And it's not just murder that's the issue here - it's the domestic violence, the rape, it's going out for a jog and being uncomfortable when you are wolf-whistled."