A SHARP rise in the number of sexual offences committed on trains has been recorded across over the past year.

In their annual report, the British Transport Police recorded that across what they call 'Division Pennine' which includes East Lancashire, there had been 41 per cent rise in the number of sexual offences reported to police.

Overall the number of all recorded crimes rose from 7,611 in 2016/17 to 8,687 in the period of 2017/18, a rise of 14 per cent.

Nationally, reports of crimes across the rail network rose by 17 per cent.

DCC Adrian Hanstock, said: “In the past ten years, we have seen a significant rise in the number of passenger journeys on the English, Scottish and Welsh railways. With more people than ever travelling on the network, we fully expected to see a subsequent rise in crime in some areas.

“The last year has been a very challenging one for our officers, who responded to multiple terrorist attacks as well as intervening almost 2,000 times with vulnerable people on the network."