HOMICIDE across Dorset has almost doubled in the last two years, new figures show.

Dorset police recorded nine homicides in the 12 months to the end of March 2017, new figures reveal.

The statistics, which show a rise of four on the previous 24 months, show the area covered by the force had a homicide rate of 11.7million people – below the average for England and Wales.

It comes after Katrina Miller was stabbed twice in the neck at her Hair Salon in Blandford Forum in January 2016 by her ex-lover Stuart Thomas.

Subsequently, Mr Thomas was sentenced to life imprisonment with a minimum of 26 years in August 2016.

The Home Office figures cover murder and manslaughter, and record the offence at the time it was recorded – not when it was known to have happened.

The figures come from a Home Office database called the Homicide Index.

Analysis by the Office for National Statistics shows that 71 per cent of victims were men and 29 per cent women – and they say it is a consistent pattern over many years.

Half of the female victims were killed by a partner or ex-partner. Men are most likely to be killed by a friend or acquaintance.

Child victims, under the age of 16, were most likely to be killed by a parent or step parent and most people are killed while in or around a house, according to the ONS.

This is particularly true for women, while one fifth of male homicides happen on the street.

The most common weapon used was a knife or sharp object.

In total, all the police forces in England and Wales recorded 709 homicides and includes the 96 deaths of football fans at Hillsborough in 1989, as a result of the inquest verdicts in April 2016.

Excluding the Hillsborough deaths, the number of homicides in England and Wales was up by 8 per cent on the previous 12 months.

The rate has increased over the latest two periods but is still 20 per cent lower than it was 10 years ago.

However, in 1967 the rate was 7.3 per million.