At a glance
• Offences against children make up 58% of 2025 recorded sex offences
• Commissioner Kurt Walton pledges more resources to tackle ‘despicable’ crime
• Detective warns technology, particularly gaming sites, a ‘gateway’ for offenders
• Recruitment of specialist prosecutors for child sex offences possible
Cayman’s police chief has pledged to crack down on sex offences against children after the number of recorded crimes jumped by 20% last year.
Commissioner of Police Kurt Walton said that he had already prioritised such offences, but he planned to devote even more resources to the problem.
“The single most important priority for us has to be our children, which is why I place great emphasis on this,” he said.
He was speaking as the Royal Cayman Islands Police Service released its annual crime and traffic statistics report on Tuesday at its new headquarters at the junction of Eastern Avenue and Shedden Road.
The figures showed an increase to 125 sexual offences for the year “mainly associated with the increase in the number of defilement of a girl under 12/16 offences, as well as in possession/taking/making of an indecent image of a child”.
The report added that analysis showed that 58% of the victims for all sexual offences in 2025 were children at the time of the offence, with almost all of them female.
The figures showed that 26% of the crimes were detected, with 47% of them still open and under investigation.
Walton said as he released the report, “The issues around sexual offences we have certainly been paying very close attention to.”
He added that Detective Superintendent Richard Barrow, head of the service’s public protection portfolio, had a team of detectives under him and that a former specialist detective superintendent from London’s Metropolitan Police had assisted in working on the problem.
Barrow said the service had recently implemented a “rapid review of cases” so that measures could be put in place to ensure the safety of children as investigations continued.
“If a criminal investigation is going on, there still can be safeguarding issues that continue in alignment with that,” he said.
Barrow added that the domestic abuse policy had been “completely rewritten” and now included a new emphasis the presence of children and ensuring they were safe.
It was also revealed that the employment of specialist prosecutors skilled in dealing with child sex abuse cases was also on the table.
Barrow added that one of the drivers in the increase in reports seemed to be “enhanced public trust and confidence” that complaints would be taken seriously and that high profile convictions also bolstered faith among victims.
“When the public is aware of convictions, that builds trust in the system,” he said.
Barrow said the police also worked closely with other agencies involved in child protection to ensure the highest levels of protection.
He warned that technology was also a factor in child sex abuse as a “gateway for online grooming”, particularly gaming portals.
Other crimes
The report said that 4,736 crimes were recorded for the year, an increase of 13%, or 588 offences, as compared to 2024’s figures.
The detection rate was 32%, but the report said that 25% of crimes remained under investigation, so the detection rate would go up as cases were resolved.
Public order offences – including those causing fear or provocation of violence and harassment, alarm or distress – saw the biggest increase, up 37%, or 294 offences, to 1,085 and crimes of violence rose 6% to 788 offences.
Crimes committed using a firearm – “firearm-enabled” crime – increased by three offences in 2025, compared to 42 offences in 2024.
But firearms crime, offences mainly to linked shots fired in public and unlawful use, fell by three offences.
A total of 14 firearms were seized over 2025, with four recovered by Customs and Border Control officers.
There were 199 offences in the “drugs crime” category, also up 6%, but firearms offences fell by 9% to 30.
“Acquisitive crime”, burglary and robbery, dropped 2% to 1,464 offences.
There was a decrease in the number of incidents and calls for service over the year, down 2,069 to 32,873.
The most common incidents responded were road traffic accidents, civil disputes, public/environmental alarms and people in distress or danger, which amounted to 35% of the total.
The George Town district remained Cayman’s crime hotspot, recording half of all the reported crime across the country and 52% of incidents.
But the report said that the high number of reported incidents in the district could be due to walk-in reports at George Town police station and traffic summons.
The “other crimes” category, which includes the use of technology to commit fraud, abuse people or annoy, threaten or harass, went up by 27% to 1,045 offences.
There were 2,162 speeding tickets issued during the year, down 33% on 2024, with 62% of recorded offences 15 mph or more over the speed limit.
A total of 50% of speeding vehicles were clocked at 50 mph or higher and the highest speed recorded was 85 mph.
In addition, 6,877 traffic summonses for offences such as mobile phone use or illegal tints were issued over the year, 959 or 12% down on the previous year.
Drink or drug driving offences fell by 1% to 277, with 25% of offenders three times or more over the alcohol limit of 0.07 – 70 milligrams of alcohol per 100 milliliters of blood – and 65% double the limit.
The report said drink driving was a contributing factor in several of the six roads deaths in 2025, although the figure less than half of the 14 recorded the year before.
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In the past it was common knowledge that many child sex offences were never reported as family members were involved. I wonder if this is still the case in which event many pedophiles still get away with their crimes.
I’m curious about the teens who are often reported “missing” from private home and/or group homes. For years, these reports have been quite frequent, sometimes involving repeat incidents, and they usually end with the teen being found “safe”, then nothing more…until the next time.
Have the Police investigated any of these many incidents as illegal sexual “grooming” or any other offenses? If so, what efforts are employed to stop them repeating?