An increase in violent crime has been fuelled by a sharp rise in internet abuse, including revenge porn and internet trolling, official statistics have revealed.
The Office for National Statistics has put a figure on internet abuse for the first time as it revealed that 77,387 incidents were recorded by police last year.
The offences (revenge porn and web trolling) pushed the number of violent crimes above one million in the year to last June – a 24 per cent rise. Revenge porn and threatening emails and messages accounted for a third of the 24 per cent surge in violent crime.
Revenge porn is where jilted lovers post explicit images of their ex-partners online, while internet trolling is where culprits send menacing emails or social media posts.
There was also a 9 per cent increase in knife crime to 29,306 incidents, and a 7 per cent rise in gun crime to 5,244 offences within the 12 months to June.
The number of sexual offences recorded by police rose 14 per cent on the previous year, the ONS said.
