Nearly 1,000 rapes reported in NI in a year - with only 5% conviction rate

968 rape offences and 2,006 other sexual offences were recorded in the last 12 months.

The PSNI has confirmed that officers received almost 1,000 reports of rapes over the past 12 months - up around 10% on figures from the previous year.

They also revealed that only 51, or 5%, of rape crimes reported in the past year have been dealt with by a charge or summons compared to 8.6% of those recorded the previous year.

Detective Superintendent Deirde Bones said:

"The increase in the number of reported rapes demonstrates that people have more confidence to come forward to police and report them.

"This must, however, be considered in the context that rape is an extremely impactive and violent crime and ultimately any rape is one too many.

"The Police Service of Northern Ireland is currently undertaking research with victims to ascertain the reasons why injured parties withdraw from an investigation in order to understand what can be done to encourage them to progress an investigation through the criminal justice system."

One of the stand out figures is that only around 5% of those cases turned into a conviction, and Deirde told us some reason behind the low rates.

"In almost 50% of cases, they would be reported by a third party, like a GP or family - so when we go out to speak to the victim then they do not wish to engage with the police.

"There are also a number of issues around consent, where it could be one word against another, where a man or woman say they did or did not consent to having sexual relations."

The rise in the number of reported rapes comes in the wake of the high profile rugby rape trial in Northern Ireland and the Jimmy Savile case.

She continued: "Anyone can be the victim of sexual crime regardless of age, background, status or gender.

"There is no room in society for tolerance of sexual crime. Our message is very clear: please continue to report."

If you have been affected by this story or need more information you can click on the links below.

Nexus NI - 028 9032 6803

Womens Aid NI - 028 9024 9041

Mens Advisory Project - 028 9024 1929

The Rowan - 0800 389 4424