Record number of sexual offences recorded in Milton Keynes

Police logged a record high number of sexual offences in Milton Keynes in the year to September, new figures show.

Charity Victim Support said the rise in sexual offences comes as victims' faith in the criminal justice system is failing and urged the police and Crown Prosecution Service to "do better and start delivering justice".

Office for National Statistics figures show Thames Valley Police recorded 999 sexual offences in Milton Keynes in the year to September – up from 801 during the previous 12 months and the highest since equivalent records began in the year to September 2007.

It follows a trend across England and Wales, as police forces logged a record 199,021 sex crimes in the year to September, up 17% on the 12 months before. It was also up 22% compared with the year ending March 2020, prior to the coronavirus pandemic – crime levels were greatly reduced during the lockdown periods.

Of these, 70,633 (35%) were rapes – a 20% increase from the 59,104 recorded in the 12 months to March 2020.

Diana Fawcett, chief executive of Victim Support, said: "This huge rise in recorded sexual offences comes as the percentage of cases seeing justice has plummeted to an abysmal new low.

"Charges for rape and sexual offences have been falling sharply for the past six years – the system is in crisis. We are on a path to destroying victims’ faith in the criminal justice system all together.”

The ONS urged "caution" when interpreting the data on sexual offences, which could be affected by a “number of factors” including improvements in how police record crime as well as victims being more willing to come forward and report incidents in light of high-profile cases and campaigns.

Meghan Elkin, from the ONS, said police-recorded crime figures are a "better indicator of police activity", rather than a reliable insight into crime trends.

Meanwhile, further ONS figures show the overall number of recorded crimes across the country remained below pre-pandemic levels.

The crime survey for England and Wales estimates 9.1 million offences were committed in the year to September – down 10% on the 10.2 million committed in the year to March 2020, the last full year before the pandemic.

Police recorded figures, which only include the crimes logged by the police, show 5.5 million crimes (excluding fraud) were recorded in the year to September – 13% up on the 4.9 million logged the year before.

In Milton Keynes, 27,372 crimes were recorded by police – up by 15% on the 23,790 the year before.

Minister for Policing, Crime and Fire Chris Philp said: "Overall crime in England and Wales has dropped by 50% since 2010, excluding fraud and computer misuse, and since December 2019 there have been reductions in the number of burglaries, cases of serious violence and murder – which are all still lower than before the pandemic.

"But I am clear there is much more to do, particularly to protect women and girls. We need to stop rapes from happening and put more predators behind bars. With huge efforts under way across the criminal justice system, we are now starting to see signs of improvement in the number of charges and prosecutions.