Stevenage, St Albans and Welwyn Hatfield are among the areas which have seen the most sexual offences reported in Hertfordshire over the past year.

Figures released by LegalExpert.co.uk, confirmed by Hertfordshire police, have revealed that the most incidents of sexual offences have been reported in Dacorum.

Twelve per cent of all sexual offences reported to the constabulary over the past year have been located in the area.

Stevenage, St Albans and Welwyn Hatfield have seen the second-most incidents reported, accounting for 11 per cent of the overall figure each.

According to the data, sexual assaults made up two-fifths of reported incidents, while rape attacks were the second most commonly reported incidents. 

Detective superintendent Lynda Coates, who is head of safeguarding for Hertfordshire Constabulary, commented: “The figures are broadly in line with what we would expect given the relative size of the population in each area.

"It is a common pattern across many areas and crime types that more crimes occur where there are greater numbers of people.

“Cases of rape and other serious sexual offences are extremely impactive on any victim, with the majority of these cases involving people who are known to each other as associates or partners.

“Regardless, we treat every single report seriously and we have specially trained officers to support victims (at the point of contact as well as throughout the investigation).

“We robustly investigate these offences to bring offenders to justice, working closely with the CPS to achieve this as soon as is possible.“

“There are also specialist services in Hertfordshire such as ISVAs and Beacon victim care centre that can provide support to victims that is independent from the police and that can be accessed even if a report to police has not been made.”

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Crimes can be reported online at www.herts.police.uk/ro/report or by calling the police's non-emergency number 101.

Hertfordshire police's web chat function can be used by visiting herts.police.uk/contact.

Anonymous information can be given by contacting Crimestoppers on 0800 555 111 or via crimestoppers-uk.org.