CHILD sex offenders and rapists have received a slap on the wrist by Dyfed-Powys Police instead of facing the courts.

New figures obtained under the Freedom of Information Act show that 33 people arrested for sexual offences were given cautions, reprimands, penalty notices and warnings between April 2009 and March 2010.

Shockingly, one offence listed as being dealt with in this way was the rape of a female child under the age of 13.

Eleven offenders escaped prosecution after sexually assaulting females aged 13 or over, as did three after sexually assaulting a child under the age of 16.

The director of children's charity Kidscape, Claude Knights, described the figures — particularly the rape incident — as disturbing.

She said: "Such sexual offences are very grave and have long-term effects on young victims. It is difficult for them to develop a sense of closure when the sentence given to the perpetrator does not reflect the severity of the crime.

"The message sent out to predators needs to be a very strong one, and sentences for these horrendous violations of children's innocence need to act as strong deterrents."

During the previous year 31 people in the Dyfed-Powys area were dealt with in the same way.

According to Home Office guidelines, police should give a caution to adults who admit they are guilty of first-time minor offences.

A caution is not a criminal conviction, but does result in a police record for five years.

A sex crime would also see an offender placed on the sex offenders' register.

A spokeswoman for Dyfed- Powys Police said cautions are given out depending on the circumstances of each incident and often due to an unwillingness on behalf of the victim to see the matter go to the courts.

"Dyfed-Powys police has historically recorded high levels of cautioning for certain categories of crime for a number of reasons," she said.

"Not least of these is that much of the crime which forms the greatest proportion of crimes within the force area, such as lower level thefts, assaults, possession of cannabis and so on, are committed by young offenders and due to the lower incidence of crime within the region, the force is able to intervene in such persons' patterns of offending at a much earlier juncture than might be the case in larger, urbanised and thus more anonymous communities.

"Cases with the potential to be resolved by way of caution are subject to additional scrutiny and two recent reviews confirm that our internal processes comply with national crime recording standards.

"As an added safeguard, cautions administered for the most serious, indictable offences are also scrutinised by the Crown Prosecution Service.

"It should be noted that often such outcomes arise because of the express wishes of complainants who are reluctant to progress matters to a court hearing."

chantelle.rees@swwmedia.co.uk