Sex offences against children have almost trebled in West Yorkshire over the past four years.

New figures from the Home Office have revealed the number of cases of sexual offences committed against children for the 12 months up to and including September 2015.

Kirklees was well above the average with 6.4 child sex crimes per 10,000 residents with 10.3 per 10,000 in the year to September 2015.

West Yorkshire Police reported 1,419 such offences during this period including 313 cases of rape.

This was almost three times the average number of child sex crimes recorded for the three previous years.

In the year to September 2012 the force recorded 266 crimes before the number rose to 389 in the year to September 2013 and 902 in the year to September 2014.

The 1,419 child sex offences in the year to September 2015 works out as 10.4 child sex crimes for every 10,000 residents in West Yorkshire.

This is the joint highest rate for any police force in England and Wales.

Calderdale has the tenth highest rate of child sex crimes in England and Wales with the 249 recorded in the year to September 2015 working out at 12 per 10,000 people.

Across the whole of England and Wales police recorded 36,855 child sex offences in the year to September 2015 of which 11,317 were rape offences.

This is an increase of 75 per cent when compared to the average for the previous three years and was 44 per cent higher than the number recorded in the 12 months to September 2014.

Telford and Wrekin in the West Midlands is the area with the highest rate of child sex crimes with 15.1 per 10,000 residents.