THE number of sex crimes reported in West Dunbartonshire has more than doubled in the past few months.

The 52 per cent rise is the equivalent of an additional 40 victims on last year.

At last week's Community Alliance meeting Chief Superintendent Grant Manders revealed these new figures recorded from April to August 2016.

He said part of this increase - in comparison to April to August 2015 - is thought to reflect a greater willingness of victims to come forward to report these crimes.

This is because 60 per cent of crimes reported have been historical – often with a year's gap between the incident and time of report.

Chief Superintendent Manders told the Reporter: “More and more people are coming forward as they know the police will investigate their statement. They have confidence that we will look into their report and there is also growing confidence in the prosecution stage.

“I'm pleased more people have plucked up the courage to report these crimes but as 60% are historical it can have an impact on the detection rate.

"This is because often these types of crimes are reliant on gathering forensic evidence which is harder to obtain when there is a gap in reporting.”

Police say protecting vulnerable people continues to be one of their main objectives.

They aim to identify those who are most at risk and work to reduce the risk; continue to develop strategies to deal with offenders, particularly those who present the greatest threat, risk and harm; work to increase the number of people detected for sexual crimes and provide a better quality of service to the victims of sexual crime.