Numbers of sexual offences have risen over the past year despite a fall in other violent crime, Police Scotland's latest figures show.

Police Scotland recorded 1795 rapes and attempted rapes in April to December 2018, up 101 (5.9%) on the same period in 2017.

Overall, recorded sex crimes increased by 7.2% between April and December 2018 compared to the same period in 2017.

However, this can be partially explained by the ongoing Scottish Child Abuse Inquiry, which is investigating the historical abuse of children in care in Scotland.

Overall violent crime has fallen 1.6%, largely driven by a drop in common assaults of more than 844 to 43,635 and a fall in serious assaults by 53 to 3024.

Group one violent crimes, such as serious assault and robbery, rose by 7.9% to 6015 with an increase in recorded murders from 40 to 48 and attempted murders up from 181 to 235.

Recorded threats and extortion crimes rose by 39% to 340, while threats to publish explicit images jumped from 248 to 415.

Meanwhile, domestic housebreaking fell 3.4% to 5266 recorded crimes - its lowest level in five years, down just under a fifth (19.5%) on the five-year mean.

The figures for April to December 2018 show recorded crime in groups one to five was down by more than 3000 compared to the same period the previous year, an 0.4% drop and a 2.5% fall on the five-year average.

Deputy chief constable Fiona Taylor said: "While the reduction in overall violent crime is to be welcomed there have been increases in certain crime classifications and we are not complacent.

"Some of the increase in non-sexual violent crimes can be attributed to more reports of cruel and unnatural treatment of children attributable to the Scottish Child Abuse Inquiry.

"Another area of group one crimes which increased are crimes of threats and extortion. Many of these are cyber related crimes where threats have been made to disclose images of a sexual nature on social media.

"Any violent crime is unacceptable and local action plans and specific operations are in place to ensure it is tackled robustly."

The figures are from Police Scotland's management information and performance report for the quarter, which the force said are not official statistics but provide in-depth information about crime across the country.