"It's a very significant and important day, " said Miriam Schler, director of Tel Aviv's Sexual Assault Crisis Centre.

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The Glade Sexual Assault Referral Centre (SARC) offers services of evidence gathering and support with a 24-hour victim helpline.

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Kent is the only county in the South East that does not have a round-the-clock Sexual Assault Referral Centre.

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However, Surrey Police defended itself saying support services were made available to Mrs Andrade, who used the Rape and Sexual Abuse Support Centre, in Guildford, following a referral.

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Kent currently has two similar centres but Ms Barnes wants funding for a 24-7 Sexual Assault Referral Centre (SARC), where victims are medically examined by a doctor and evidence can be taken.

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In January 2013 a new EU unit at Europol in The Hague, called The European Cyber Crime Centre, will start operations, focusing on tackling child sexual abuse online.

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Mr Barak's latest political blow came on March 6th when Yitzhak Mordechai, the minister of transport and leader of the Centre Party, was charged by a young woman on his staff with sexual assault and harassment.

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During a fairly frenetic trip to eastern Democratic Republic of Congo last week I spent a couple of hours at the Heal Africa centre in Goma, one of several institutions in the region where victims of sexual violence are treated.

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Yet another of Mr Rubinstein's political hot potatoes is a police investigation, now nearing completion, into allegations of sexual assault and sexual harassment by yet another coalition member, Yitzhak Mordechai, transport minister and leader of the Centre Party.

ECONOMIST: Israel