Shocking increase in sex crimes

AN average of six women a day are reporting rapes to police amid a sharp rise in sex crime.

Police Scotland said the number of alleged rapes had shot up by nearly a fifth in the past year, from 1,781 to 2,136.

Official statistics also reveal a drop in the proportion of rape cases that are solved.

Last night, top brass insisted that the rise was evidence of increasing confidence among victims to report incidents.

But Sandy Brindley of Rape Crisis Scotland said the justice system needed to act as ‘a real deterrent’.

The Scottish Tories said more frontline officers were needed to ‘rebuild public confidence’.

THE number of reported rapes soared by nearly 20 per cent last year, shocking new figures reveal.

An explosion in sexual crime saw 2,136 rapes investigated by police in 2017-18 – an average of almost six a day – up from 1,781 the previous year.

Meanwhile, Police Scotland said the detection rate had dropped by 4 per cent to about 54 per cent. It means that almost half of rape cases are unsolved.

The single force, which saw an overall increase in all recorded crime, insisted that sexual crime figures were ‘continuing evidence of increasing confidence among victims to report incidents’. But Sandy Brindley of Rape Crisis Scotland last night described the increase as ‘worrying’.

She said: ‘It is important that the justice system acts as a real deterrent to potential perpetrators of this crime.’

Police Scotland’s 2017-18 data showed the number of alleged rapes of women over the age of 16 rose by 27.1 per cent from 944 to 1,200. There was a 44.9 per cent rise in reported rapes of girls between the age of 13 and 15, from 176 to 255 – a five-year high.

And 39.9 per cent of rapes were reported more than a year after they were said to have occurred.

The total number of sexual crimes, including rape, rose from 11,128 to 12,487, an increase of about 12 per cent. Overall, total crime increased by 3.4 per cent in a year, while violent crime rose by 1.1 per cent, mainly driven by ‘increases in robberies and common assaults’.

Last night Scottish Tory justice spokesman Liam Kerr said: ‘It is no coincidence that crime is on the increase while so many frontline officers are doing backroom work. The SNP must shift focus back to the day job, free up our police officers to catch criminals, and keep people safe and rebuild public confidence.’

Earlier this month, it emerged that Police Scotland faces a further £40million of cuts amid fears almost 1,200 officers will be axed.

The force, which had an overspend of £37.8million in 2017-18, has vowed to balance its books by 2021, although police chiefs do not know how that will happen.

Commenting last night, Police Scotland said that ‘while recorded crime has risen slightly year-onyear, it remains below the level recorded at the start of Police Scotland in April 2013, and there were 10,300 fewer crimes in 201718 than the five-year average, a drop of 4 per cent’.

Interim Chief Constable Iain Livingstone said: ‘We are moving officers from back office roles onto the frontline, but frontline policing has also moved into the virtual world, where an increasing number of crimes are being committed.’

A Scottish Government spokesman said: ‘The recent crime and justice survey showed that crime in Scotland has fallen by around a third in just under a decade, while more people than ever feel safe in their neighbourhood.

‘Police numbers in Scotland remain significantly above the level in 2007. Scotland has some 900 more officers, in contrast to England and Wales where more than 20,000 posts have been cut in the same period.’