MORE THAN a third of all crimes committed in Gwent over a two-month period were either violent of sexual offences.

There were 5,394 violent or sexual offences out of 14,376 incidents recorded by Gwent Police between October and December last year – an 8.4 per cent rise on average figures recorded for the same period previously.

Incidents of rape, violence with and without injury and public order offences have risen above the average number of crimes recorded during the same period previously.

Drug offences, burglaries, and domestic abuse cases have also increased, though knife crime offences in Gwent remain the lowest in Wales and the third lowest in the UK.

A full breakdown of reported crimes in Gwent between October and December, 2018:

All other theft – 1138

Bicyle Theft – 95

Burglary (dwelling) – 619

Burglary (non-dwelling) – 343

Criminal damage and arson – 2,293

Drug offences – 384

Homicide – 1

Miscellaneous crimes – 331

Other sexual offences – 231

Possession of weapons – 54

Public order offences – 1,754

Rape – 160

Rape report (non-crime) – 19

Robbery – 64

Shoplifting 874

Theft from the person – 107

Vehicle crime – 906

Violence with injury – 1,500

Violence without injury – 3,503

A rise in rape offences saw 16 officers retrain as sexual offence liaison officers (SOLO) to cope with the workload.

It is estimated that 22 per cent of the rape crimes during this period were historic.

“There is an assumed increased willingness of victims to come forward for both recent and historic cases,” says the report.

“As a result of the increased pressure places upon investigators dealing with rape and other specialist crimes, public protection detective chief inspectors have been moved to local authorities to work directly with frontline staff.”

An increased awareness of officers when dealing with domestic abuse has led to disclosures by victims that might not have been previously reported, it is claimed.

The report says drug offences had remained relatively stable before an increasing trend was recorded in 2018.

It adds: “Driving this increase [is] a greater emphasis on proactive stop and search tactics when dealing with cannabis possession, and some high level drug trafficking supply investigations.”

The report will be discussed by the Gwent Police and Crime Panel on 29th March.