UNITED KINGDOM
Express
By LAURA MOWAT
According to the shocking figures obtained by a Freedom of Information Request by The Mail on Sunday, 725 crimes were reported in the past year with 368 of them relating to children.
Spokesman for the charity Minister and Clergy Sexual Abuse Survivors, Phil Johnson, said: “We’ve seen numbers increase dramatically in the past few years because of the Jimmy Savile effect, but those that go to the police are in the minority.”
Most cases were in churches but the figures also included offences at mosques and Sikh temples.
Graham Wilmer, of The Lantern Project, which supports child sex abuse victims, added that based on the number of those who do not report crimes, the real number of offences could be ten times higher.
Justin Humphreys, Head of Safeguarding at the Churches Child Protection Advisory Service, believes reporting of sexual abuse has improved since the Jimmy Savile case.
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