More than three decades ago, fear rippled through the city of Bradford.

Women were frightened to go out alone as the hunt for the Yorkshire Ripper ensued.

During his reign of terror, Peter Sutcliffe murdered 13 women, but being told by police to stay indoors was something some women were not prepared to do.

Instead, they formed a group which initially met in cafes and eventually they set up a helpline. Thirty years later the organisation, now known as Bradford Rape Crisis, is a professional operation with 17 fully-trained members of staff.

Since its inception, demand for the service has grown – more recently in the aftermath of the death of Jimmy Savile whose shocking catalogue of sexual abuse has been exposed.

Nationally, the charity has experienced a surge in calls as more women have become empowered to report incidents of abuse which have happened to them.

Seeing survivors sharing their stories in a TV documentary about Savile has prompted many women to reveal harrowing experiences.

“The documentary exposing Jimmy Savile as a sexual abuser gave other adult women the courage to speak about the sexual abuse they had suffered as children.

“For many it was the first time they felt they could say what had happened to them and be believed by friends, relatives, colleagues at work,” says Jane Gregory, co-ordinator with Bradford Rape Crisis.

In the first two months after the Savile documentary was screened a year ago, the organisation experienced a 25 per cent increase in helpline contacts.

It also provided an additional 33.3 per cent face-to-face counselling, advocacy and support sessions.

“Since that spike we have had very consistent use of all our services,” says Jane.

In the first six months of 2013, 522 women and girls used the service, 1,859 had face-to-face counselling, and advocacy and support sessions were provided. There were 4,337 helpline contacts.

Jane explains the Core Telephone Helpline is often the first contact point for women or girl survivors who have been affected by sexual violence at any time in their lives.

These include adult women survivors of child sexual abuse who are dealing with the long-term impact of repeated rapes, violence and abuse, women who were raped as adults in the past and are now needing support, girls and young women who have been abused and women and girls who have recently been raped and may want to access the ISVA service (Independent Sexual Violence Advisor).

Through the helpline, the organisation also receives referrals from workers in a wide range of statutory and voluntary and community sector services.

As well as the helpline, Bradford Rape Crisis also runs the Core Shared Support Group, a weekly support group for survivors of sexual violence to meet and discuss issues and offers counselling and therapy services.

It also runs a specialist sexual violence service, Jyoti, for black, Asian and minority ethnic women, provides counselling with New Hall Prison and works with organisations such as social enterprise, Bevan House Primary Care Centre, and runs an outreach service with Bradford College.

Bradford Rape Crisis also works in partnership with Bradford Working Women’s service delivering weekly drop-in support, and, this year it launched an advocacy and support service funded by Comic Relief for refugee and asylum-seeking women and girls who have been raped in their home country.

“At Rape Crisis we work daily with adult women survivors of sexual violence who have been told they were in some way to blame for being raped and abused,” says Jane.

“As an understanding of the reality of sexual violence grows through documentaries, TV soap storylines and responsible journalism, we hope that we can move away from victim-blaming to providing the support that survivors need and deserve.

“Rape Crisis provides a confidential and independent helpline through which women and girls can get support, whether the abuse happened recently or many years ago.”

For more information call Bradford Rape Crisis helpline on (01274) 308270.