Police chief Derek McEwan says Fife has high sex crime rate

Chief Superintendent Derek McEwan admitted the figures look "quite frightening" and told councillors that the Kingdom has a large proportion of sex offenders living here.

His crime update also said a rise in shoplifting includes people "stealing to survive" while a spike in housebreakings is largely down to "ruthless" gangs who are targeting homes with high performance vehicles.

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However, Mr McEwan told the people and communities scrutiny committee: "Within Fife one of the biggest challenges we have is in respect of sexual crime.

"Now I don't mean this to sound strange but there is a positive to that.

Chief Superintendent and divisional commander for Fife, Derek McEwan. (Image: Newsquest)

"We have some of the highest sex crime rates within Scotland, however we are exceptionally pro-active at working with partners and encouraging people to come forward.

"I don't think Fife is any worse than any other area of the country but we have a higher recorded rate and I think a lot of it is down to the partnership working we do."

Between April and September 2023 there were 940 sex crimes which was a big drop from 1,130 in the same period in 2022.

However Mr McEwan's report said that Fife has, per 10,000 of the population, the highest number of sexual offences and, in particular, rapes in Scotland.

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He said: "We're up there with Glasgow. It can look quite frightening and obviously every single one of those cases has a victim attached."

The divisional commander said the very nature of sexual crimes, often occurring in private and requiring corroboration for prosecution, make them "particularly challenging" to detect.

But he added: "The division’s performance in this area is one of the best in the country."

And Mr McEwan told the committee: "We also have some of the highest proportion of managed sex offenders on our streets which again, on the face of it, is probably not a positive.

"However, these people are throughout Scotland and I think in Fife we are very successful at identifying them, very successful at convicting and very successful at turning them into managed offenders.

"Elsewhere in the country I fear they're not being caught as well as they are in Fife so there will be those unmanaged individuals in communities and probably committing other offences.

"We invest more in our public protection units than other areas of Scotland because we recognise that crime type is one that's often under a stone and until you lift that stone you don't get a full picture of the challenges you face."

Discussing other crimes, Mr McEwan said: "Without a shadow of a doubt, the significant rise in theft by shoplifting and some of the items we're seeing stolen, I would say are being stolen to survive.

"Whereas traditionally you'd see the stealing of coffee and bacon, which were sold round the doors, now it's items like nappies."

On the rise in housebreakings he commented: "There's a real problem throughout Scotland with keyless thefts, where individuals have mechanisms to steal your car off your driveway without your keys.

"It's organised gangs doing this, from Fife but also Dundee and Edinburgh.

"Unfortunately these individuals can be pretty ruthless. If you get into a pursuit with them they're in a high performance vehicle, you're talking over 100 mph.

"So a large part in the rise in housebreakings is down to that. It's a break in to steal property but they're stealing your car as well."