Almost 200 Angus children including several under the age of one have been victims of sex crimes since the start of 2008.
And children’s charities claim the figure is just the tip of the iceberg, with hundreds of other incidents going unreported.
Information detailing the number of indecent offences committed in the county show that in 179 of the 294 recorded crimes, the victim has been aged 16 and under. Among the offences investigated by officers were the grooming of a child for the purpose of sexual offences and sexual intercourse with a girl under the age of 13.
However, Elaine Chalmers, head of the Scottish branch of charity ChildLine, expressed her fear that we may never know exactly how many children have been subject to sexual abuse.
She said, “These figures show how many children are potentially at risk of serious sexual abuse every day. We know that, as most abuse goes unreported, such figures can only ever give an indication of the true extent of the problem.
“Many children do not speak out about the sexual abuse they have suffered because they are scared they will not be believed but help is always available for them through services such as ChildLine.”
Among the sex crimes recorded over the period were 90 cases of indecent assault, 28 of rape, two of sodomy and one of brothel keeping. Over the period 185 of these crimes resulted in at least one individual being charged.
Some 77 resulted in one or more people being detained in custody, 86 in a report to the procurator fiscal, 28 in a report to the children’s panel, two in a community warning and two in a police restorative warning.
In the remaining cases the perpetrator was undetected in 74 incidents and in the other 25 there was adjudged to have been no crime.
Detective Inspector Ian Wales from the public protection unit at the eastern division of Tayside Police called on anyone who was aware of sexual abuse in their community to come forward especially where they believed minors were involved.
“We work very closely with the social work and education departments to make it as easy as possible for children to report instances of sexual abuse as we understand that this can be a very traumatic process,” he said. “For example, if a child told a teacher about an incident wherein he or she had been abused the information could then be passed on to us.
“Although these figures have to be taken into context and we have to realise that reports can sometimes be made by children when no crime has been committed, it is always a concern to hear that children have been victims of sexual abuse.”
Photo used under a Creative Commons licence courtesy of Flickr user aaron.bihari