Thousands of sexual offenses against children under 13 reported at or near schools in England and Wales

Thousands of sexual offenses against children under 13 have been reported at or near schools in England and Wales over the past five years, averaging nearly five cases a day, according to a Guardian analysis of police data.

At least 8,500 offenses against children aged 12 and under were recorded between 2021 and 2025, the newspaper reported on Sunday. They included almost 2,000 alleged rapes and attempted rapes – equivalent to at least one rape allegation at a school every day.

Most police reports did not specify the age of the alleged perpetrators, although The Guardian said they were likely to be fellow pupils given where the incidents occurred. In at least 1,890 cases involving under-13 victims, the alleged offender was reportedly under 18. Girls were the victims in nearly two-thirds of cases where the victim’s sex was recorded.

Police also recorded at least 9,100 sexual crimes against children aged 13 or over at or near schools, as well as 6,140 offenses involving the possession, production or distribution of sexualized images of children.

The true scale could be significantly higher, according to The Guardian, as only 33 of the 43 police forces in England and Wales provided data.

Children’s Commissioner for England Rachel de Souza described peer-on-peer abuse in schools as “widespread, normalized and too often brushed under the carpet.” She said that despite recent government efforts, much more needed to be done, stressing that the problem extended beyond schools and reflected a broader societal issue.

Lawyers and campaigners condemned the scale of the abuse and called for tougher action.

“Those in authority can no longer claim that they were not aware of how prevalent an issue this is,” said Andrew Lord, a lawyer representing sexual-abuse survivors. “Anything short of concrete action to tackle this problem is simply not good enough.”

Janaya Walker of End Violence Against Women said repeated warnings had failed to prevent young people from being “harmed en masse.”

The findings come amid broader concerns over child sexual abuse in Britain. The National Crime Agency receives around 1,700 referrals involving suspected child sexual abuse each week, up from 1,200 in 2020, while arrests of children for sexual offenses reached a record 3,809 in 2024-25.

The controversy also comes amid heightened scrutiny over child sex crimes linked to gangs involving men of Pakistani origin. An inquiry funded by Restore Britain MP Rupert Lowe reported in June that at least 250,000 women and girls were raped by grooming gangs since the year 2000, and that senior politicians helped the gangs escape prosecution.

The government has tightened online-safety rules, expanded sex education and introduced mandatory abuse reporting for professionals working with children. Critics, however, argue that the safeguards remain inadequate.