70% of Guilty Sex Crime Verdicts in England and Wales Involve Child Abuse

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Over 70% of guilty verdicts for sexual offences handed down by courts in England and Wales last year involved the abuse of children, Byline Times has found.

Out of the 10,641 convictions for sexual offence cases last year, at least 7,500 were related to the abuse of children under the age of 18. Some 1,635 of these cases involved victims who were under the age of 13.

In contrast, 3,141 guilty verdicts related to sex offences against adults. Where gender was listed, 2,217 of these cases reported the victim as female and 130 male.

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The true number of child-abuse sex verdicts might be higher as some offences involving adults are categorised under broader headings that also include child victims.

For example, some ‘adult’ offences listed as being against victims “aged 16 or over” or “aged 13 or over” and so involve child victims, muddying the overall statistics and raising questions about how these crimes are recorded and reported.

The Role of Indecent Imagery in Child Sex Abuse Convictions

A significant portion of child sex abuse cases involve indecent imagery. Of the 7,500 guilty verdicts involving the sexual abuse of children, at least 43% (3,223 cases) were related to offences involving the possession, creation, distribution, or publication of indecent photographs or pseudo-photographs of children.

Also, in 2022, of all defendants charged with indecent image offences, 97% (3,292) were prosecuted for offences related to images of children.

However, even when these image-based offences are excluded from the statistics, the total number of convictions for sexual crimes still show a majority involving children.

Some 58% (4,227 cases) of reported non-digital sex crimes involved child victims and 42% (3,042 cases) involved reported adult victims.

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Byline Times’ analysis comes in the wake of the scandal involving Huw Edwards, the former senior BBC news presenter.

Last July, the 63-year-old pleaded guilty to three counts of making indecent images of children and admitted possessing 41 indecent images that were sent to him via WhatsApp by a convicted paedophile.

Among these, seven were classified as category A, the most serious type of abuse imagery, including depictions of children as young as seven.

The court heard that Edwards had not produced or distributed the images but had received them from another individual. He faces a possible jail sentence and will appear in court again later this month.

The Bigger Picture: A Need for More Robust Data and Safeguards

Edwards’ cases exemplifies the complexities of child sexual abuse in England and Wales, but these figures only represent cases that have made it to court. Many instances of child sexual abuse never reach this stage.

The UK’s Centre of Expertise on Child Sexual Abuse estimates that at least 500,000 children are sexually abused each year, yet only a small fraction of these cases are recorded by the police. Of those documented, an even smaller number lead to charges or prosecutions.

According to the Centre, in the 2022/23 fiscal year, only 11% of police-recorded child sexual abuse investigations concluded with a charge, with many cases being closed due to a lack of evidence or because further prosecution was not deemed in the public interest.

However, according to the Office for National Statistics (ONS), the prosecution-to-conviction ratio for child sexual abuse cases appears to be significantly higher than for sexual offences against adults – 80% compared to 46%.

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This discrepancy may reflect the unique challenges in prosecuting adult sexual offences, which often require more evidence to secure a conviction, as challenging legal issues such as the absence of consent between adults may need to be proven.

Stuart Allardyce, Director of Research at the Lucy Faithfull Foundation, a UK-wide child protection charity that works to stop child sexual abuse, told Byline Times: “Estimates suggest that around one in six children will be sexually abused and these children come from all backgrounds and walks of life.”

Allardyce added that the data “shows how important it is that victims and survivors are given the support they need, and for professionals to be well trained and supported to identify and tackle abuse”.

He said it also shows “how important it is for harm to be prevented in the first place. This means putting the responsibility on adults to not offend and giving them support to achieve that, which is what our anonymous Stop It Now helpline aims to do.”

The Ministry of Justice declined to respond to a request for comment.

The Stop It Now helpline is: 0808 1000 900