Claims of child sex offences committed by other children almost doubles in just four years

Feb 5, 2017 by Jill

by Isobel Frodsham, Mailonline:

Claims of child sex offences committed by other children have almost doubled in four years, according to new reports.

The number of alleged offences reported to police in England and Wales rose from 5,215 in 2013 to 9,290 in 2016, children’s charity Barnardo’s has discovered.

In total, there were 32,452 reports to police of alleged sexual offences by children on under 18 victims over the four year period – an average of more than 22 every day.

The alarming figures, which were obtained through a Freedom of Information request, strengthen calls by the UK’s leading children’s charity for action to tackle the growing problem of children sexually harming each other.

But the charity said the number could be higher as seven of the 43 forces in England and Wales either did not respond or provided only a partial response.

The forces with the highest number of reported offences were the Metropolitan Police (5,470); West Yorkshire (3,192); Greater Manchester (3,024); West Midlands (2,876) and Kent (1,678).

In Warwickshire there was a rise of 521 per cent. Norfolk saw an increase of 371 per cent and the rise in Lincolnshire was 345 per cent.

Last summer Barnardo’s warned that child on child sexual abuse threatened to become the next major child protection issue. It backed calls for a national inquiry to examine the issue and urged government to develop a national strategy to tackle it.

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