Detective Sergeant Nigel Freebairn, from the Sexual Offences and Child Abuse Investigation Team, said it was critical police were informed of any sexual offending, even if people were uncertain about pressing charges.

“In the light of recent high profile cases, we are appealing for people to come forward because we believe there are victims in the community who have not reported incidents to police,” he said.

“We would just like to hear from them and discuss options with them, before we even talk about formally proceeding.”

Detective Freebairn said one victim in a recent case didn’t originally report the matter because she “didn’t put a great emphasis on what he’d done to her” and just put it down to a “bad experience”.

“But with any inappropriate touching or advances we strongly encourage people to come forward to ensure matters come before the court,” he said.

“It’s important to ensure people aren’t subjected to that type of behaviour. If we aren’t informed about it we can’t act on it and we can’t prevent it happening in the future.”

To report an incident of sexual assault contact central Victorian SOCIT on 5448 1423.