THERE were more than 5,035 recorded instances of violence against another person in St Helens in 2017-18, a council report has revealed.

St Helens Council’s performance outturn report 2017-18 says levels of Violence Against the Person (VATP) have continued to rise during the course of the year.

VATP includes assault, actual bodily harm (ABH), grievous bodily harm (GBH) and murder.

There was a 14 per cent increase of VATP offences recorded in St Helens during 2017-18.

That means St Helens has the second highest level of VATP per 1,000 population in Merseyside.

“Although we are above the Merseyside force average, when compared to the most similar peer groups we remain under the average,” the report says.

“As a means of reducing the number of violent incidents, violence linked to the night time economy has been identified as a priority for the town centre Joint Agency Group to address violence linked to town centre issues.”

The report also reveals the number of repeat victims of domestic abuse presenting on more than three occasions has almost doubled, rising from 59 in 2016-17 to 116 during 2017-18.

“The creation of a domestic abuse strategic group will ensure closer scrutiny is applied to all repeat victims and the quality of preventative/early help measures to avoid repeat victimisation is properly considered,” the report says.

The borough also saw a 16 per cent jump in the number of robberies in 2017-18, with 102 recorded, up from 88 the previous year.

However, the number of burglaries fell from 1,504 to 1,269, a 16 per cent decrease.

Vehicle crimes also saw a 12 per cent drop, falling from 1,107 to 973.

Reported incidents of anti-social behaviour dropped from 7,466 to 6,065.

The number of repeat callers making 10 or more calls to report anti-social behaviour over the year was 23, a reduction on the 33 reported in 2016-17.

The report attributes the drop to a number of preventative and enforcement measures undertaken by the Community Safety Partnership over the course of the year.

The number of recorded hate crimes also dropped, with a total of 211 incidents reported during the year compared to 265 in the previous year.

The report says encouraging the greater reporting of incidents of hate crime will remain a priority for the Community Safety Partnership in 2018-19 as it is felt this type of crime remains under-reported.