BURGLARIES and robberies are down but violent crimes including rape have seen an increase in the last year, according to figures released by Thames Valley Police.

Reading has seen a 6.3 per cent reduction in crime overall, with 12,165 crimes being reported between April 2014 and March 2015 compared to 12,987 in the same period last year.

Robberies were down 20.6 per cent, with 127 incidents recorded compared to last year’s 160, and reports of burglary have also seen a dramatic reduction with 184 fewer incidents recorded this year from last year’s 589.

But as violent and sexual assault offences continue to rise across the town, Supt Robin Rickard, local police area commander for Reading, said Thames Valley Police officers need to focus on more vulnerable victims.

He said: “I’m really pleased with the crime performance in Reading but I think going forward we’ve got to focus more on the vulnerability of victims and the risks and increase our efforts for vulnerable people.”

Rape has increased to 62 per cent with 115 cases reported in 2014/15 in comparison to 71 in 2013/14 and also, reports of domestic abuse have risen by 24 per cent, from 1,035 to 1,284.

But Supt Rickard claims the rise in high profile historic sexual offence allegations, such as the Jimmy Savile case and Operation Yewtree, has given victims more confidence to report crimes.

He said: “Prosecutions in these very high profile cases has certainly given people the confidence and a voice to really come forward and report it.

“Confidence in a victim is the most important thing to take that first step in reporting sexual offences.”

Racially or religiously aggravated attacks have sky rocketed 55 per cent from 75 to 116 and a total of 16 incidents of homophobic hate crime were reported, compared to nine last year.

However, Supt Rickard said he was not surprised to find an increase in racial incidents in a town as “diverse” as Reading.

He said: “I would be surprised if there were no religiously or racially aggravated crimes in Reading, considering how diverse the town is.” But in my experience the town is also very tolerant and I don’t know why that is – people here tell me it’s just the way the town is.

“Really small numbers of hate crime such as homophobic offences allow us to focus of the victim and provide the support for them but I do think it would be wrong to create blanket services for that sort of crime considering the numbers are so low.”

Figures from the report were collated on April 8 by Thames Valley Police.