Sexual offences, stalking and harassment across Dorset has increased by nearly a fifth in the past two years.

Figures from the Office for National Statistics showed the force had recorded 2,343 sexual offences in the year ending March 2022 (up from 2,077 in the year ending March 2020) as well as 6,099 cases of stalking or harassment (up from 5,029) - an overall rise of 18.8%

David Sidwick, Police and Crime Commissioner for Dorset Police, said there was ‘no place in society’ for these types of crime.

He said: “Awareness and reporting is a good thing. We know that because there is a greater awareness we are seeing more incidents reported - including historical offences - but any sexual offence is completely unacceptable.

“It’s not right, there’s no place for it in society, and we need to drive it down.

“I find it totally unacceptable that someone should think it’s a smart move or a clever move to spike someone’s drink, to harass someone, to sexually assault someone, and I want to make it clear that we will take every action possible to tackle these sort of crimes.”

Last year just 1.7% of the 815 rape investigations carried out by Dorset Police resulted in a charge or summons with ten resulting in conviction.

Mr Sidwick said the figures “just aren’t good enough” and that he was committed to providing long-term victim support.

He said: “It’s vitally important that we provide support from victims from start to finish - and even after that - because that’s how you encourage people to come forward with the confidence that they will be listened to and be supported every step of the way.

“We are working on mapping the victim’s journey through the system from the point of reporting through to prosecution so we can identify at what stage things do drop off and then start to employ more resources to that area.

“On stalking - I’ve made it clear that we need to be making better use of Stalking Protection Orders and we’ve introduced an Independent Stalking Advisor, as well, to help provide victims with that support.”

The figures were released as part of a batch of data that showed, overall, crime in Dorset had fallen by 5.8% when compared to pre-pandemic levels.

In total there were 50,890 crimes reported to Dorset Police for the period 2021/22 - down from 54,016 crimes in 2019/20 - one in six of which were stalking, harassment or sexual offences.