Met 'can't explain' 15% rise in rapes

The number of women reporting sex assaults in London has risen dramatically, it emerged today.

New figures show reported rapes soared by 15 per cent in a year, with 2,180 recorded in the year to March compared with 1,904 in the year to April last year.

Commander Mark Simmons of the Met police told the London Assembly public health committee that the figure was still a serious underestimate as about 90 per cent of rapes go unreported.

But he said the Met had no idea why the numbers were rising. "Overall, violence is going down and there is no reason we can see for the number of rapes to have gone up. It is difficult to tell why the figures have gone up. We don't think more people are committing rape."

He added: "If these figures mean more people are coming forward to the police, then that is positive."

The figures emerged after Boris Johnson was accused of betraying women by back-tracking on a manifesto pledge to fund three new rape crisis centres.

His manifesto promised £744,000 a year - or £2.2 million overall - to pay for the scheme. The Mayor said the cash would come from cuts to Ken Livingstone's army of spin doctors but it later emerged that he had set aside only £233,000 a year in the budget.

Campaigners reacted with fury at the shortfall, and last month the Mayor was forced to increase funding to £1.4 million. But this still falls short of his election pledge to deliver £2.2million over three years.

Deputy Mayor for Policing Kit Malthouse told the committee there had been a "misunderstanding" about how the centres were going to be funded. "We want to get the locations right and the sustainability right. We don't want them to be a flash in the pan for three or four years."