NCA leads crackdown on drug-facilitated sexual assault networks

The crime type, which the NCA explicitly frames against the case of Gisele Pelicot in France, involves the deliberate removal of a person’s capacity to consent, typically through drugs or alcohol administered by someone the victim knows and trusts, in order to commit sexual offences, which are then filmed or photographed and shared online.

In many cases, the offending takes place within long-term intimate partner relationships over a period of years or decades, and victims are often unaware anything has happened to them at all.

Since October 2025, NCA investigators have identified more than 270 individuals connected to one particular online forum and the platforms that succeeded it. More than 210 intelligence packages relating to perpetrators, suspects and potential victims have been passed to law enforcement partners in the UK and overseas, enabling local investigations and safeguarding activity. That work has resulted in at least 14 separate UK investigations to date.

In response, the NCA, the newly established National Centre for Violence Against Women and Girls and Public Protection (NCVPP), police forces and the Crown Prosecution Service are now working alongside health services, Sexual Assault Referral Centres and specialist organisations in a coordinated, whole-system approach designed to share intelligence more effectively, identify patterns of offending earlier, and align investigations and prosecutions from the outset.

The approach builds on reforms already underway through Operation Soteria, which has reshaped how rape and serious sexual offences are investigated, and on existing work targeting coercive and controlling behaviour. Rather than relying on a single victim account, investigations are being built around offender behaviour, digital activity and connections between individuals, intended to produce stronger cases without depending on victims being able to recall or evidence what happened to them.

The NCA said comprehensive investigative work has already produced convictions in cases of this kind, with further prosecutions ongoing across England involving multiple defendants.

There is also a significant international dimension. The NCA has been leading collaboration with European partners under Project Medusa, a Europol-supported initiative launched in April 2026. Last week, investigators from Brazil, Canada, France, Hungary, the Netherlands, Spain, the United States and Europol met at the NCA’s London headquarters to share information on suspected offenders, victims and online groups. The meeting resulted in more than 150 offenders and victims being identified, over 270 new international investigations opened, and four new online communities uncovered.

The NCA was clear that the true scale of ODFSA offending remains unknown, and is almost certainly underreported.

Nigel Leary, Deputy Director at the NCA, said the agency’s focus remained on ensuring victims are identified and offered support, and described the offending as no longer isolated but “increasingly organised, conducted via coordinated networks and enabled by digital platforms.”

Deputy Assistant Commissioner Helen Millichap, Director of the NCVPP, said victims may only become aware of what has happened to them through police contact or emerging evidence, and stressed that “you do not need proof or a clear memory to seek help.”

Siobhan Blake, national CPS lead for rape and serious sexual offences, described some of the offending uncovered as “some of the most horrifying I have seen in my career,” and said the coordinated response was intended to give victims confidence that the issue is being tackled directly.