Colchester police figures show sharp rise in sexual offences

Essex Police recorded 910 sexual offences in Colchester in the 12 months to June, according to figures released by the Office of National Statistics.

This is an increase of 49 per cent on the year before.

An Essex Police spokesman said: “The increase in offences can, in part, be attributed to increased reporting and the work of our new CSE Investigation Team which was formed last year and deals with both reactive and proactive investigations.

“They take on both new and older referrals where conventional safeguarding tactics have been previously unsuccessful.

“They deal with the most complex and difficult criminal investigations involving the sexual exploitation of children.”

Meanwhile, violent crime has risen in Colchester, from 7,700 crimes to 8,635 over this period.

One of the main factors behind this increase was the rise in violence with injury, which rose by 24 per cent, from 1,637 incidents to 2,028.

Essex Police recorded 18,917 offences in Colchester in the 12 months to June.

That was an increase of 13 per cent compared to the previous year, when there were 16,673.

At 95.9 crimes per 1,000 people, that was higher than the rate across England and Wales, which stood at 91.3.

The spokesman added: “Tackling violent crime, and the drug-related activity which often goes alongside it, is a force wide priority and we have teams in place across the force in order do that.

“We want to ensure Essex is a safe place to live, visit or work.

“We take a zero-tolerance approach to violent crime, drugs, and gangs and we will use the laws and powers available to us to take robust action against offenders.”

Reacting to the figures, Diana Fawcett, chief executive at the charity Victim Support, said: “This huge increase in sexual violence, in particular rape, reported to the police is seriously alarming and a stark reminder that the government needs to get a grip on staggeringly low conviction rates and horrendous court delays.”