More than 400 sexual assaults have been recorded in the island since 2010.

Details were revealed in a response to a Freedom of Information request to the Manx Constabulary.

The figures show that a total of 408 sexual assaults were recorded between 2010-11 and 2016-17.

Offences included rape, indecent assault, abducting a female for marriage or sex, sexual grooming and child sex offences.

Of the 408 assaults, about one in four cases led to a prosecution, with 109 individuals being charged.

A total of 212 cases were discontinued or no further action was taken.

A further 58 were found not to be a crime and the remaining 140 cases were ’cleared or completed’.

Cautions were issued in 14 cases and a further 14 are classed as ’detected but no proceedings’.

In three cases, a prosecution was not pursued as the victim or accused had died or was too ill to attend court.

The figures are based on crime reports - which do not record the outcome of prosecutions.

Crime reports may contain reporting of multiple incidents, and also relate to incidents that occurred considerably earlier than the date of reporting, the FoI response notes.

It adds: ’There is no simple way of summarising reasons why a reported assault has been given status of discontinued, or determined to not be a recordable crime.

’A sample of update and investigation reports showed a variety of reasons for discontinuing crimes.

’These frequently included that there was insufficient evidence to charge with a realistic chance of conviction, but also reasons of withdrawn complaint, (in some cases believed to be a false allegation), inability to identify offenders, or conflicting evidence.’