Sex offences and drug crime rose dramatically in Kilkenny during lockdown: report

There was a noticeable increase in sexual offences and drug arrests in the Kilkenny Garda Division over the course of 2020.

At the same time the number of thefts and public order incidents in the county fell dramatically.

The figures were released in the Crime Statistics for each Garda Division published by the Central Statistics Office (CSO) yesterday.

The number of sexual offences, including rape and sexual assault, recorded in the Kilkenny Division increased by more 53% year on year with 141 incidents reported last year. This compared to the 92 incidents recorded for the whole of 2019.

Drug crimes were significantly up in 2020 with 744 reported incidents compared to 603 in 2019, a 23.4% increase, despite the majority of the year being spent in some form of lockdown.

There was a sharp drop in thefts and burglaries over the course of 2020. Kilkenny Gardai recorded just 829 reports thefts or burglaries last year compared to 1,248 in 2019, a drop of 33%.

Attempts/threats to murder, assaults, harassments and related offences were also by 12% down in 2020. However in the last quarter of 2020 there was a massive spike in assaults, with a total of 134 recorded during this three month period.

Unsurprisingly, public order offences were down sharply, from 2,146 in 2019 to 1,703 incidents last year, a fall of 20.6%.

Fraud cases remained on par with 2019, with 163 cases being reported in both years. Incidents of dangerous driving largely remained the same, with 241 reported in 2019 and 242 reported in 2020,  despite less journeys being taken due to Covid-19 restrictions.

All the figures were taken from the year starting January 1, 2019 through to December 31, 2020.