Figures released by the NSPCC show that one child is sexually abused every 20 minutes in the UK, revealing the true scale of child abuse in the country.

According to the NSPCC, more than 60 child sex offences are reported to police each day, but ironically less than one in ten of reported cases led to an arrest. Of all the children, who were victim of child abuse, around 1,470 were aged five and under.

Over 4,973 victims aged between five and ten, while 14,819 were between 11 and 17. The NSPCC report reveals that reported offences committed against girls were six times more than that committed against boys. The statistics obtained by the NSPCC cover crimes including rape, incest and child prostitution across all 43 police forces in England and Wales.

London’s Metropolitan Police received the most abuse cases, a total of 3,420. But, only 27 cops have been devoted to nail paedophiles, while the Leveson Inquiry into Press standards has 150 police officers working on its phone hacking investigation.

Head of NSPCC’s Sexual Abuse Programme, Jon Brown, was quoted as saying “The Government has to start treating the situation as seriously as they would if faced with an outbreak of chronic disease. We also need a clearer picture of what is happening between an offence being reported and someone appearing in court.

“The police are doing their best to bring prosecutions but we need to understand why there is such a huge disparity between the figures. The facts there are repeat offences against some children also shows not all are one-off incidents”, added Brown, urging the government to act.

He explained that NSPCC is putting efforts to reduce this upsetting level of offences by starting new programmes, including Schools Service, which aims to work with 1.8 million kids aged seven to 11 over the next four years. But, he emphasised that major effort from government and the public towards child protection is required.

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