Figures obtained by Sexual Abuse Compensation Advice have revealed that over 1,500 rape and sexual offences have been reported to Dyfed-Powys Police in the past year - with the highest number of offences over the past three years occurring in Carmarthenshire, followed by Pembrokeshire.

In the UK, there was an 11% increase in police recorded sexual offences in the past year compared to the previous year, largely due to improvements in police recording practices.

Policy Advisor at The Survivors Trust, Lucy Duckworth, said: “I think that some victims do not want to report offences or be involved in prosecutions because they are seeing the trauma of reporting.

“Of the 15% of offences that are reported, only 1.6% will result in a prosecution. This isn’t a system that needs reforming, but rather one that simply isn’t working and isn’t delivering for victims.”

In 2022/23, 1,751 rape and sexual offences were reported to Dyfed-Powys Police, before this number dropped to 1,495 a year later.

Over the past year, the force has seen an increase in reported offences, with the total standing at 1,666.

Between January and March this year, a total of 98 rape prosecutions were abandoned across the country, with the Crown Prosecution Service being accused of betraying victims due to a lack of support and long waits for cases to come to court.

Official CPS figures have seen the number of rape prosecutions being ditched rise from 160 in 2020/21 to 608 in 2024/25.

A recent inspection into the CPS concluded that too much focus is being put on ‘victim credibility’ instead of on the suspect.

Sexual Abuse Compensation Advice also gathered figures from the force on where the most sexual offences took place within their area of remit over the past three years.

The highest number of offences occurred in Carmarthenshire with 1,537, followed by Pembrokeshire, where 1,195 offences were reported.

Lucy Duckworth said: “I think we need a huge cultural and societal shift, such as making it mandatory for all police and frontline staff to have training in working with survivors of sexual violence, because we are now looking at around 14 million adult survivors in this country.

“A lot of this comes down to the ‘victim-blaming’ culture that exists within our society, which, of course, puts people off.

“One of the main problems is that we intervene once the offence has already happened, we have got to stop trying to address the symptoms of abuse rather than the actual abuse itself.”

Police in the UK record a range of sexual offences into specific categories such as rape, sexuals assault and child sexual abuse. Data is collected in this manner to enable action against offenders and provide support to victims.

Since 2022, the most common type of sexual offence reported to Dyfed-Powys Police was sexual assault on females, totalling 694 offences.

Sexual Abuse Compensation Advice provides legal advice services for sexual abuse claims; and operate a 24-hour helpline.