POLICE have said a rise in reported sexual crime in Renfrewshire is due to an increase in victims coming forward.

A total of 452 crimes – ranging from rape and sexual assault to the distribution or possession of indecent images of children – was recorded in Renfrewshire and Inverclyde from April to November last year.

The figure represents an increase of almost 26% on the 362 recorded in the same period in 2017, as well as a 68% rise on the preceding five-year average.

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At last week’s Police and Fire and Rescue Scrutiny Sub-Committee meeting, Chief Inspector Simon Wright said: “You will see and continue to see quite big increases in this year, last year and the five-year trend. It’s quite a significant increase. We want to scrutinise and try to understand why that is.

“The trend is upwards and will continue to be upwards because of a lot of non-recent crime reporting.”

The number of sexual assault and rape of women aged 16 and over rose by 25 and 26, respectively.

These types of crime were among the most common reported in 2018/19, accounting for 25% of the overall number of sex crime reports.

The volume of non-recent reporting – crimes that happened more than a year prior to being reported to police – increased by almost 27% in the last year.

More than 41% of sexual offences in 2018/19 were non-recent.

Chief Inspector Wright said “public confidence” was one of the reasons for the rise.

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He added: “Certainly, the police service in Scotland has been far better with victims. We have better catered for victims in these circumstances.

“Because of high-profile media campaigns people are more likely to come forward on the basis of successful convictions of people who committed offences decades ago.”