An Independent Police Complaints Commission investigation into Dyfed-Powys Police's handling of a historic rape allegation found both individual and organisational failures which meant that the rape allegation was not properly investigated.

The IPCC investigation found evidence to substantiate that a temporary detective constable, an acting detective sergeant, a detective sergeant and a detective inspector failed to ensure the rape investigation was progressed and all four have attended Dyfed-Powys Police misconduct meetings.

The IPCC investigation also found that both Dyfed-Powys Police and the officers involved in this investigation did not provide the quality of service that someone making an allegation of rape should expect.

IPCC Commissioner for Wales Tom Davies said: "This woman came forward to report an alleged rape that had occurred when she was a child. This must have been a very difficult thing for her to have done and she was entitled to a proper investigation.

"The accumulation of individual and organisational failures described in our investigation led to a Dyfed-Powys Police response so inept that it borders on the unbelievable.

"Put simply, at the time that this woman reported the alleged rape to the police the man was a known sex offender on the sexual offenders register and every effort should have been made to investigate the allegation thoroughly. It is a tragedy that it was not.

"These individual and institutional failures were then compounded when two individual officers gave statements to court which led to this young woman facing hostile questioning when she appeared as a witness in a trial for a different case.

"Dyfed-Powys Police has shown us that it has since changed its systems and they believe that the report of a crime such as this could no longer be lost in the system. I have been assured by the highest levels within Dyfed-Powys Police that this was an isolated case.

"It is vitally important people can come to the police with confidence that serious matters such as these are properly investigated. Failures of this kind though only serve to make the experience more traumatic than it already is and potentially severely dent the public's confidence.

"The force has assured me that the public can still have confidence that when they do report such serious crimes that they will be dealt with sensitively and thoroughly.

"I would expect Dyfed-Powys Police to now offer this young woman a full apology."

Deputy Chief Constable Jackie Roberts said: “Firstly I would like to apologise publicly on behalf of Dyfed-Powys Police to the victim in this case for our failure to properly investigate this matter from the outset. This was clearly a serious allegation and our response in terms of follow-up investigation was unacceptable. We accept the findings of the independent IPCC investigation and the principal officers involved have been subject to misconduct proceedings. We are confident that our crime management procedures are now far more improved and robust than was the case in 2005 which will assist in ensuring that the situation that arose in this case should not happen again.”