A FORMER Mayor of Worcester has sparked controversy by saying it is "easy to make" rape allegations.

Councillor Alan Amos has also suggested West Mercia Police should stop recording rape reports as an 'offence', stunning sexual abuse experts and politicians.

The remarks have come under fire from a police superintendent, who says they are "30 years" out of date and go against national justice guidelines encouraging victims to come forward.

It comes after new figures revealed how rape reports have rocketed 206 per cent across south Worcestershire in just five years and 168 per cent in the whole county.

Between 2011 and last year 1,054 rape offences were reported to police, including a record high of 324 in 2015.

Councillor Amos, an outspoken Conservative, said: "Correct me if I'm wrong because the law may have changed, but the accused can be named in public and the accuser is not named.

"So in that sense it's a claim, or an allegation - easy to make, difficult to prove."

He made his remarks during a council scrutiny meeting at County Hall where he asked Kevin Purcell, superintendent for south Worcestershire, if the figures were convictions and cast doubt on its merits.

"The reason I'm asking this is because I'm concerned people are talking about massive increases in this, massive increases in that," he said.

"But surely you can only do that on the basis of convictions?

"Unless there's been a conviction you can't say that offence has occurred."

The remarks stunned Supt Purcell, who said he wanted to "take issue" with his views.

"I'm sure it wasn't meant to sound like that, but if you ring us up and say 'we've got a burglary' we don't say 'wait until we've got a suspect arrested and charged, we don't believe you' - we'd say you've had a burglary and we'd deal with it.

"We do our best to deal with it properly, that should and definitely does include rape."

He added: "The concept of 'we don't believe them until someone is charged' is probably set 30 years ago."

Councillor Amos then said he agreed police must make a judgement, before adding: "It seems this is an allegation which is 'easy' to make.

"That's difficult to solve, I know, but if someone just comes along and makes it and it goes down as a reported offence, then we're going to get these horrendous figures.

"I just wonder whether that's helpful to us, to have those kind of figures."

Supt Purcell replied by saying they were "not horrendous figures, but people brave enough to come forward".

"National police guidelines state that if someone says it's happened, then it's happened," he said.

Councillor Amos' views have shocked politicians and sexual abuse experts, who have called it "out of touch".

Labour Councillor Chris Bloore said: "Reporting a rape is not an 'easy' thing to do.

"I work with people who have suffered rapes; going to the police station, having that medical examination - this is not 'easy'."

Yesterday Denise Griffiths, from the West Mercia Rape & Sexual Abuse Centre, said: "The fact is a high proportion of our clients will never, ever come forward and report it to the police.

"We agree with Kevin Purcell's comments. The reason people do come forward is because of services like ours."

After the meeting Councillor Amos warned against his remarks being "trivialised", but defended them, saying; "We've got to be really careful about the way we phrase it".

"I'm as concerned as anybody if rapes have doubled, but it's unsatisfactory not to know what has happened in each case," he added.

Last night more sexual abuse experts came forward to warn against his remarks, saying the current recording guidelines are aimed at encouraging victims to be brave.