THE number of people in North Yorkshire meeting children after grooming them has risen by 80 per cent, according to Home Office figures.

In the year April 2015 to March 2016, there were nine offences for meeting a child after grooming, compared to five in the year April 2011 to March 2012.

The figures also reveal that police recorded 93 offences of meeting a child following sexual grooming in Yorkshire and the Humber in the year to March 2016.

This was up from 39 in the year to March 2012.

A law was created in 2015 to make it illegal to send sexual messages to children, following the Flaw in the Law campaign by the NSPCC.

But the children’s charity says the Government failed to bring that law into force in England and Wales, leaving police hands tied and preventing them from arresting groomers until they meet the child or sexually abuse them.

A spokesman for the charity said: “The NSPCC pressured the Government to urgently bring in this anti-grooming law, and Justice Secretary Liz Truss has finally listened.”

From today online grooming is a crime in England and Wales, meaning police will be able to arrest anyone who sends a sexual message to a child, and intervene before physical abuse takes place.

NSPCC chief executive Peter Wanless said: “The Justice Secretary has done the right thing.

“This is a victory for the 50,000 people who supported the NSPCC’s Flaw in the Law campaign. It is a victory for common sense.

“Children should be as safe online as they are offline, wherever they are in the UK. This law will give police in England and Wales the powers they need to protect children from online grooming, and to intervene sooner to stop abuse before it starts.”