By Four child sex offences reported to Humberside Police every day
Shocking figures released by the NSPCC have revealed that an average of four child sex offences are reported to Humberside Police every day.
Both the NSPCC and Humberside Police are calling on the government to take serious action.
The statistics include offences such as rape, online grooming and sexual assault.
The number of offences reported to Humberside Police has risen by 78% in just five years.
In the year 2019/2020, there were 1,585 recorded offences in the Humberside Police force area alone, while across the UK as a whole, 73,518 child sex offences were recorded – this figure is up by 47% in the last five years.
According to the NSPCC reports of sexual abuse against children tripled during lockdown.
Of the 73,518 offences recorded nationally, 12,374 were committed against children under ten-years-old.
Horrifically, 449 offences were committed against babies under one-years-old.
NSPCC Chief Executive Peter Wanless said:
“The crisis of child sexual abuse is not going away and behind these figures are thousands of children and young people who have reported crimes that can have a devastating impact on their lives.
“Urgent action is needed-to prevent abuse and to ensure children are supported to recover when bravely speak out.
“We need concerted leadership from governments across the UK to implement strategies on tackling child sexual abuse that put the experiences and needs of children at their heart and are effective in preventing abuse and helping young people recover.”
Detective Chief Inspector Phil Booker of Humberside Police added:
“We are committed to tackling child sexual offences and protecting our most vulnerable, doing all that we can to find and charge offenders.
“There are many reasons for the increase in cases reported compared with five years ago, the main one being the increase in people coming forward to report these types of crimes.
“There is also an increased awareness around these types of offences. Training across all agencies has significantly improved, in which signs and vulnerabilities for child abuse are being more easily identified, leading to more reports.
“This increase in awareness is also notable among members of the public. There is much wider knowledge of signs of abuse, as well as for linked crimes such as county lines, modern day slavery and child criminal exploitation, which have seen referrals increase significantly, as these crimes often go hand in hand.
“We have also seen a rise in people reporting historic offences due to the fact victims have more confidence to come forward after seeing how seriously police forces have taken and investigated high profile cases seen in the media.
“As a force, we take reports of child sexual offences extremely seriously. Our dedicated Protecting Vulnerable People unit, consists of specially trained officers that work tirelessly to investigate child abuse and child sexual exploitation offences.”
“We work with partner agencies and community police officers to support and intervene with families where there are early warning signs of abuse, as we believe early intervention is important, to help prevent as many offences as we can.
“When someone has been convicted, or has served a sentence for a sexual offence our MOSOVO teams work with them to prevent them from re-offending.
“I want to reassure those living within our force area that we will not tolerate offences of this nature being committed. We appreciate how difficult it can be for a victim or someone close to a victim of this type of crime to come forward, but we would really encourage them to do so, as early as they feel comfortable, and we will investigate.
“I would also appeal to the wider public to be vigilant and if you notice anything you think could be a sign that a child is being abused or exploited, to get in touch with us as you could be what allows a child to get out of a horrific situation.”
