SEXUAL offences in the Maldon district have risen in the past year, including a near 50 per cent rise in rape cases.

Essex Police have released their performance summary for January 2017 to January this year in the Maldon district.

The document is due to go before Maldon District Council’s Crime and Disorder Committee this evening.

It reveals that the total number of sexual offences in the area for the past year is 74, ten higher than the previous year.

Incidents of rape saw the biggest increase of nine, rising from 19 to 28. Despite this, police’s solved rates plummeted, with no incidents being solved, compared to the 36.8 per cent solved rate of cases for 2016.

There was also a significant increase in the number of cases where an under 16-year-old was raped, rising from five to 12 cases, with the solved rates dropping by 140 per cent.

Additionally, there has been a rise in violent crime in the area, with a total of 871 offences, a rise of 129 from the previous year’s figure.

These include 227 incidents of stalking and harrassment and 318 incidents of violence where injury was caused.

Despite increases across the board, there was a near eight per cent drop in solved rates, falling from 25.5 per cent to 17.8 per cent.

In total, police recorded 2,546 incidents of crime in the Maldon district from January 2017 to 2018, which had risen by 4.4 per cent from last year’s figure of 2,439. Total solved rates fell from 16.7 per cent to 14.2 per cent.