Edinburgh murders falling but reports of child sex crimes on increase, police report reveals

A total of two murders were committed in Edinburgh last year, Police Scotland have revealed. Murders, culpable homicide and serious assaults have fallen although child sex crimes have

increased. A report released from Police Scotland (Q4 Management of Information data from March 2020, to April 2021) has revealed that murders in the Capital have fallen from six to two,

compared with the previous year. There has also been a reduction in culpable homicide, which are down from five, to three, and there have been 115 fewer serious assaults according to the

data. With Scotland being subject to various COVID lockdown restrictions in the last year, 4,500 fewer crimes were reported, while the overall detection rate for crime rose by five and a

half percentage points. Crimes such as housebreaking and overall acquisitive crime have fallen significantly, with an almost 50 per cent reduction in domestic housebreaking (527 offences).

Acquisitive crime has decreased by 4,204 offences, while there has been 713 fewer motor vehicle crimes. While many areas of crime have gone down in Edinburgh, reports of sexual crime have

risen overall by 78 offences, many of these are as a result of proactive investigations into historic sexual abuse incidents. Nationally, there were a total of 1,966 child sexual abuse

crimes recorded during the year, an increase of 5.9 per cent compared to last year (1,857). Chief Superintendent Sean Scott, Divisional Commander for Edinburgh, said: "The past year has

been one of the most challenging in living memory and I am delighted by the manner in which my officers and staff have risen to the challenge.” _A MESSAGE FROM THE EDITOR:_ _THANK YOU FOR

READING THIS ARTICLE. WE'RE MORE RELIANT ON YOUR SUPPORT THAN EVER AS THE SHIFT IN CONSUMER HABITS BROUGHT ABOUT BY CORONAVIRUS IMPACTS OUR ADVERTISERS._