Horsham sex assaults revealed

The Horsham district has one of the lowest rates of sexual assaults in Sussex, it has been revealed.

A Freedom of Information request to Sussex Police showed that there were a total of 28 victims of sexual assault over 2013/14.

In the same period, seven people were charged in connection with the incidents.

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From 2009 to 2014 police recorded a total of 117 victims of sexual assault in the Horsham district.

Of these victims, 61 were under the age of 17.

A total of 46 people have been charged in this same time frame.

Horsham’s victim number is the second lowest in Sussex, ranking just above Rother at 112.

The highest is Brighton and Hove, which has 767 victims.

At 252, Crawley has more than double the number of victims compared to Horsham. The second highest is Adur and Worthing, with 338 victims.

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From 2009 to 2014 there have been a total of 3,011 victims in Sussex.

More than 1,300 of those are under the age of 17.

Over this time 751 people have been charged with sexual assault.

Police said that it is not uncommon for sexual offenders to be charged with more than one crime and this could be the reason why the number of those charged is far less than the number of victims.

Chief inspector Howard Hodges, Horsham district commander, said: “An immediate observation would be that these numbers are the second lowest across Sussex and that it is not unusual for offenders to be charged with more than one offence which might account for the apparent disparity.”

For more information about the crime and for victim support visit http://www.sussex.police.uk/policing-in-sussex/transparency/policies-and-procedures/force-policies/victim-support-scheme