73 cases of physical and sexual assault on minors have been reported to police in 2021 so far, Home Affairs Minister Byron Camilleri told parliament on Monday.
Camilleri was answering a parliamentary question posed by PL MP Silvio Grixti.
The 73 cases were split into the following categories; bodily harm, domestic violence and sexual offences. The amount of police reports in each category are that of 30, 25 and 18 respectively.
The statistics of the previous three years was also provided in the parliamentary question. In 2018, 158 reports of physical and sexual abuse were made, in 2019 the number of reports rose to 168 and in 2020 the number of reports was that of 142.
From 2018 till 12 July 2021 a total of 541 physical and sexual abuse cases have been reported.
Camilleri made it clear that some reports do not only concern a single individual. He said that “there are cases where the act of abuse was committed on a number of victims”.
No information with regards to action taken on the aggressors was given.