Sex crimes reported to police at highest level since current records began

The number of people murdered in England and Wales increased by 14 per cent in the year to September and instances of attempted murder went up by 19 per cent, while knife crime rose by nine per cent and firearms offences by four per cent.

The Office of National Statistics (ONS) said the rises may be due to an improvement in recording by the police and an increase in the willingness of victims to come forward.

The number of rapes and other sex offences reported to police has increased by 36% in the past year – hitting almost 100,000 in total over the 12 months.

In North Yorkshire, overall crime is up 3 per cent in the year to the end of last Septmber – compared to the same period in 2014.

Public order offences have increased by 65.5 per cent. There were 1,392 offences last year compared to 841 the previous year.

In total, there were 6.6m incidents of crime in the year to September 2015.

Chief Supt Rob Odell said he hoped that the figures would show people that the police are doing their job.

A separate measure based on people’s personal experiences – the Crime Survey of England and Wales – showed levels were stable at 6.6 million incidents.

Andy Simon, a former detective who leads an organisation which mediates between gangs in London, said: “The youngsters are more likely to carry knives and to resort more quickly to violence”.

AN increase in the amount of violent crime across Wiltshire is stretching the workload of police officers, according the chairman of the Police Federation.

Recorded individually, 39% increased year-on-year as well as other sex crimes 35%.

In Wiltshire there has been an eight per cent fall in vehicle crime, a reduction of 214 offences.

Jack Dromey, Labour’s shadow policing minister, expressed concern at the rise in serious crime: “The Tories have slashed police officers by 17,000 and broken their promise to the public to protect frontline officer numbers”.

“The first duty of any government is the safety and security of our citizens”, he added.

Crime commissioner Julia Mulligan told a recent police scrutiny meeting that North Yorkshire was still the safest area in the country but that “pressures on crime in other areas with much higher crime rates than North Yorkshire are having a direct effect on North Yorkshire”.

“It’s believed rises in authorities recorded sexual offences tend to be as a result of an improvement in recording from law enforcement and a rise in the willingness of victims to come forward and report to law enforcement”.

The commissioner also outlined the increase in recorded sexual offences in Gwent (24 per cent) as a reflection of the “increased public confidence in reporting these crimes”.

“The Government has made reducing violence, including knife offense, a precedence and continues to work closely together with law enforcement as well as other organisations to undertake the motorists of the offenses”.