A SENIOR Dorset detective has defended his force's record on rape charges.

Just 16 people were charged in the county between April and September this year, despite 118 reported rapes of men and women in the county.

But Detective Superintendent Neil Redstone said each case is rigorously investigated and everything is being done to put offenders behind bars.

He was speaking on the day Tory leader David Cameron called for drastic improvements in the rape conviction rate in England and Wales.

Mr Cameron told the Conservative Women's Organisation conference that three-quarters of rapes are not reported and that less than six per cent of reported offences result in a conviction.

"How can any civilised country, that sees the sanctity of consent as a vital right for every woman, accept these facts?" he asked.

But Det Supt Redstone stressed the figures must be put in context and said rapes involving strangers are "extremely rare".

He told the Daily Echo: "One of the reasons why the detection rate is not as high as we would like it to be is that in the majority of cases the issue is around consent and that presents a number of challenges for the investigators.

"Most cases are one person's word against another's with no corroborating evidence, no witnesses and forensic evidence which is of little value in proving an offence."

Det Supt Redstone said a recent review of the way complaints of rape are dealt with in Bournemouth concluded that they were professionally investigated by well-trained officers.

And he said a "proportionate response" is given to all complaints.

Dorset's Chief Crown Prosecutor, Kate Brown, said 70 per cent of rape cases to reach court in Dorset result in a conviction.

But she added: "There is still more to be done to improve the way in which we deal with these cases. Recently we have put processes in place where all rape cases are reviewed by a specialist lawyer.

"Where cases fail we scrutinise them to see where lessons can be learnt and we apply those lessons to future cases."

She said cases where the evidence consists of one person's word against another's are prosecuted if there is sufficient evidence to support the complaint.