CRIME in Oxford has fallen by more than 50 per cent since lockdown.

Serious crimes like robberies, burglaries on houses and violent attacks in the streets have all reduced dramatically since Boris Johnson forced the country into lockdown to halt the spread of coronavirus.

In the city centre specifically crimes have fallen by more than half since March when 314 reports were made to the police.

April’s data on Police UK shows that only 145 reports of crime were made – the most reported ‘type’ was violent and sexual assaults.

Thames Valley Police say that the reduction in crime is a similar pattern across the country and put it down to the closure of pubs, clubs and night-time economy when brutal crimes tend to happen more.

Oxford Mail:

A spokesperson said: “As restrictions are lifted gradually, we expect that some crime levels will increase.”

Read the latest court results for Oxfordshire here.

They said violent and sexual crimes could be put down to an increase of online grooming, adding: “We have seen a reduction in sexual assaults and rapes where the victim and the offender are not known to each other.

“However we are aware that some violent and sexual offending have continued.

“For example we have seen an increase in the levels of online grooming and sexual offences, with potential victims and offenders being at home and more likely online, additionally any reports we received for non-recent sexual offences would be categorised in this data.

Read more: police expecting to get more 999 calls about domestic abuse

“Domestic abuse is an area where levels have maintained and in Oxford there was an increase in domestic incidents where no one was injured.

“We have been running campaigns across the Force to warn victims of the dangers of online grooming, additionally we have been carrying out warrants across the Force to bring offenders to justice.”

One of the most recent campaigns was to help people report abusers quietly, by calling 999 and dialling 55 if they cannot talk.