Watch out freshers: KCL named most dangerous Uni

*Names have been changed for anonymity*

A shocking report detailing crime rates at universities across England and Wales has been published, and guess what? KCL tops the list.

Compiled by the Complete University Guide, the report used official police data to determine the frequency of burglary, robbery and violent crime within a three mile radius of the universities studied. It claimed that these are the crimes most likely to affect students, and that unfortunately King’s students are most likely to be victims.

Official data on crime specifically against students is currently unavailable, but, alarmingly, King’s is located in an area which saw 36.65 incidents occur per 1,000 residents between May 2013 and April 2014. The total number of reported incidents at King’s was made up of a worrying 10.99 cases of burglary, 5.71 of robbery and – frighteningly – 19.94 of violent crime.

Crime hotspot

The Guide’s primary author, Bernard Kingston, said: “Many students are all too often unaware of the level of crime in the areas around their chosen institutions. All prospective students should be able to compare the risks for individual institutions with much greater precision.”

And just in case these figures don’t speak for themselves, we spoke to some actual KCL crime victims to hear their distressing stories.

King’s student Lauren described an attack on her friend in March, shortly after leaving KCL student favourite Walkabout. She said: “This guy was talking to my friend and she wasn’t really responding because she was out of it [drunk] and he started calling her a c*** and kicking her.”

“Then she fell to the floor and he kept kicking and kicking and screaming all of these misogynistic words.”

Another King’s student, Sara, was a victim of pickpocketing March. She told us: “I was on a night out in Roxy, and later on, when I was nearly home, I went to text my boyfriend and realised someone had taken my phone. Looking back on it, I can think of a couple of people I came across who might have done it, but the scariest part is, whoever it was, I didn’t notice a thing.”

“The police couldn’t investigate because my journey home had involved going into a different borough of London, and I didn’t know exactly where it had happened.”

Stay safe on nights out

Undergraduate Olivia also reported an incident of phone-theft near Old Kent Road. She said: “It was quite dark and a guy came out of one of the driveways and grabbed my phone out of my hand. He then told my friend to get her phone out or he would stab her, so she got it out and gave it to him.”

A piece of the action

Regarding the report, a King’s College London spokeswoman told us:

”In the case of King’s, one of London’s most central universities, this [data] includes the major transport hubs of Waterloo and London Bridge.

”Serious incidents involving students are an exception and we have College and Students’ Union welfare teams available to provide professional support in these small number of cases, as well as strong security measures in place across all our campuses including swipe card access, video monitors and security on a 24/7 basis.”

Nevertheless, freshers fresh from the suburbs – be on your guard.