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The number of women reporting sex assaults in London has risen dramatically, it emerged today.
New figures show reported rapes soared by 15 per cent in a year, with 2,180 recorded in the year to March compared with 1,904 in the year to April last year.
Commander Mark Simmons of the Met police told the London Assembly public health committee that the figure was still a serious underestimate as about 90 per cent of rapes go unreported.
But he said the Met had no idea why the numbers were rising. "Overall, violence is going down and there is no reason we can see for the number of rapes to have gone up. It is difficult to tell why the figures have gone up. We don't think more people are committing rape."
He added: "If these figures mean more people are coming forward to the police, then that is positive."
The figures emerged after Boris Johnson was accused of betraying women by back-tracking on a manifesto pledge to fund three new rape crisis centres.
His manifesto promised £744,000 a year - or £2.2 million overall - to pay for the scheme. The Mayor said the cash would come from cuts to Ken Livingstone's army of spin doctors but it later emerged that he had set aside only £233,000 a year in the budget.
Campaigners reacted with fury at the shortfall, and last month the Mayor was forced to increase funding to £1.4 million. But this still falls short of his election pledge to deliver £2.2million over three years.
Deputy Mayor for Policing Kit Malthouse told the committee there had been a "misunderstanding" about how the centres were going to be funded. "We want to get the locations right and the sustainability right. We don't want them to be a flash in the pan for three or four years."
Reader views (7)
Livingstone didn't have an "army of spin doctors". That was just Boris lying to get elected. Surely people have woken up to that?
- Mellie, London, UK, 25/06/2009 09:33
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Can't, or won't?
- Dave, Walthamstow, 25/06/2009 07:45
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The more perverts get away with crime the braver they get. Could be less than 100 people doing all these crimes.
We all know the solution but it requires more prison places and Brown would sooner bail out the banks and shop via the John Lewis list than protect the people who pay the tax and voted the jokers into power.
To be really honest I doubt we are being told the truth about the figures.
- Gary, brentwood, 24/06/2009 14:28
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I can.There's a lot of scum in London.
- Steve, London, 24/06/2009 12:55
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90% unreported. Really so that means 20,000+ rapes per year in London or 1 in every 300 people, 1 in every 150 women, 1 in every 50 women between 16 and 50 raped EVERY year. I don't think so somehow. Another of the fantastical anti-men pro-women garbage that is never challenged either by politicians or the media. There is one statistic that the Met should be ashamed of. 90% of all crimes are never solved by these idiots.
- Jon, london, 24/06/2009 12:54
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Crime in London overall is on the up since about 10 years. Soft-on-crime has been the benchmark for the current government. They produced not just economic crisis but also social crisis...
- Georgie, Islington, London, 24/06/2009 12:50
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Two points:
1. How does Simmons know that 90% of rapes go unreported? By definition this figure is guesswork.
2. The number of reported rapes is going up because women are being encouraged to do so, which is a very good thing.
Hopefully when the proportion of convictions remain low, the press won't report that it's because the courts are being soft on rapists. Rather they should state the obvious fact that rape is notoriously hard to confirm, because of the absence of any independent evidence of what's taken place.
- David, Doha Qatar, 24/06/2009 10:17
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