RECORDED crimes of a sexual nature decreased between the start of April and the end of August this year, according to new figures from Police Scotland.

A report to Inverclyde Council’s police and fire scrutiny panel has revealed that 36 sexual crimes were recorded in Inverclyde during the five-month period.

This represents a 45.5 per cent decrease when compared to the same period in 2023/24.

Three crimes in the reporting period are said to have involved non-recent allegations.

Police say in their report that approximately 60 per cent of sexual offences in Inverclyde were non-contact, cyber-enabled crimes such as indecent communications, possession of indecent images of children, and threats to disclose intimate images.

The detection rate for sexual crimes was 75 over the reporting period, compared to 71.2 per cent in the previous year and the national rate of 56.5 per cent.

The report will be considered by the scrutiny panel at a meeting on November 21.