Sex crimes reported in the Stewartry have shown a sharp increase.
Members of the council’s area committee were told on Wednesday there were 68 crimes of indecency between April and December, up from 47 in the same period in 2017.
And that represents a rise of 44 per cent.
Police Scotland’s report revealed that “public confidence in reporting sexual crime has increased over the years”.
Not all of the offences were committed in 2018 with some occurring a number of years ago.
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The report said the largest increase was in lewd and libidinous practices and behaviour, with 21 reported during the period compared to two in 2017. All the offences were committed before December, 2010.
The report also shows a sharp rise in the number of petty assaults from 97 to 169.
The biggest increase came in the Abbey ward where there were 87 in 2018 compared to 33 the previous year.
The detection for such crimes has dropped slightly from 71 per cent in 2017 to 66 per cent in 2018.
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Violent crimes dropped from 17 to 13 with serious assaults down from 12 to four, all of which have been detected.
There was also one attempted murder in Castle Douglas, the report saying this was “an isolated incident and the perpetrator was quickly apprehended”.
There were 23 more incidents of shoplifting in the Stewartry, taking the tally to 50.
But incidents of vandalism and malicious mischief showed a significant drop, down from 132 to 86.
The number of people being caught dealing or growing drugs increased from 11 in 2017 to 14 in 2018.
