Necrophilia offences

Freedom of Information (FOI) Act request ref: 01/FIN/25/3482

Version Date: 06/08/2025

Please could you provide the number of recorded offences under Section 70 of the Sexual Offences Act 2003 (“sexual penetration of a corpse”) between 2020 and 2025 (if available), broken down by year.

If it assists your search, this offence may also be referred to using terms such as necrophilia or sexual interference with a corpse. If any other offence codes or descriptions are used locally for cases involving this conduct, I would appreciate those figures being included as well.

If possible within the cost limit, I would also be grateful for:
- The outcome or disposal of each offence (e.g. charge, no further action)
- Whether the victim was identified (e.g. case involving a named deceased individual vs. unknown).

The Performance & Analysis Department have provided the following information.

We have searched within the Niche Crime database for occurrences with the HO stats code ‘088/11’ or the SC Description ‘Sexual penetration of a corpse - SOA 2003’ between the dates specified.

The searches produced a nil return