Just seven per cent of NSW sexual assault reports end in conviction

Only 15 per cent of the sexual assaults reported to police in New South Wales result in charges being laid - and less than half that amount result in a guilty verdict, new statistics have shown.

Data from the NSW Bureau of Crime Statistics and Research showed than in 2018, 5869 sexual assaults were reported to police.

Of these, charges were laid against 969 defendants, 872 (15 per cent) of which went to court.

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Just 41 per cent of those defendants - or seven per cent of the overall number of reported assaults - were found guilty of at least one offence.

BOCSAR numbers revealed that only eight per cent of contemporary child sexual assault incidents, seven per cent of historic sexual assault incidents, and six per cent of adault sexual assault incidents reported to police, resulted in guilty verdicts.

NSW BOCSAR executive director Jackie Fitzgerald said the "police investigation" phase carried the highest attrition rate "by far".

"While the number of reported sexual assaults have nearly doubled over the last decade, the number of convictions remain low," Fitzgerald said.

"In 2022, there were 9138 incidents of sexual assault reported to NSW police, yet in the same year only 1016 defendants were found guilty of a sexual assault charge in the NSW courts."

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