CHILD SEX CONVICTIONS RISE BY 60% IN JUST SIX YEARS THANKS TO ‘BETTER DETECTION AND RAISED AWARENESS’ (But child protection groups say the number is relatively small and it remains an under-reported crime)

dailymail.co.uk/rebecca Camber

The number of rapists and paedophiles being convicted of child sex offenses has rocketed bynearly 60 per cent in six years.  New figures show that the amount of offenders convicted ofsex attacks on children under the age of 16 has leapt from 1,363 in 2005 to 2,135 in 2010. Campaigners believe the increase in online sexual exploitation through social networking groupssuch as Facebook may be to blame for the dramatic surge in convictions.  They say the numbersare still relatively small and it remains an  underreported crime.  In the same period of2008-9 when there were 1,916 convictions, NSPCC figures show that there were 21,000 child sexoffenses recorded by police.  One in seven of the children were younger than ten and 1,000were five and under.
CHILD SEX OFFENSES CONVICTIONS
2005: 1,363
2006: 1,675
2007: 1,747
2008: 1,888
2009: 1,916
2010: 2,135
Vanessa George was jailed in 2009 for taking indecent pictures of small children at LittleTed's nursery school in Plymouth.  The mother of two was given an indeterminate sentence forsexually abusing children in her care and swapping images of the abuse with two other pedophilesshe met on Facebook.
(United Kingdom)