Children, those under the age of 18 years, were the confirmed or suspected perpetrators in almost 20 per cent of all sexual crimes reported to the Garda last year, according to the Irish Times.

Newly-released figures also show 83 per cent of the complainants of the total number of sexual crimes reported to the Garda in 2019, were alleging they had been sexually abused when they were children.

81.1% of victims of sexual violence recorded in 2019 were females, while 18.9% were males. In addition, 98 per cent of the perpetrators in sexual offences are male, according to the new set of crime data released by the Central Statistics Office (CSO).

Some of the information released on Friday relates to 2019 and some to 2018.

Of the sex crimes that were reported to the Garda in 2019, 62 per cent of the offences had occurred within a one-year period before they were reported.

24 per cent occurred 10 years or more before the victims went to the Garda.