The city of Lleida recorded 36 cases of sexual assault involving penetration between January and June 2026, up from 23 in the same period of 2025, according to the Ministry of the Interior’s second-quarter crime report. In the same half-year, Tarragona recorded 16 cases, Reus 19, and Girona 26, according to the same report.

The capital, in contrast to the rest of the province

Across the province of Lleida as a whole, cases of sexual assault involving penetration fell slightly, from 61 to 60, according to the Interior Ministry. In other words, 36 of the 60 cases recorded in the province in the first half of the year occurred in the city of Lleida.

Crimes against sexual freedom in the city rose from 47 to 69. Petty thefts increased from 1,139 to 1,359, and intentional homicides and completed murders rose from zero to two.

The two homicides of the half-year

According to La Ciutat, the first incident occurred on 25 January, when a man presented himself, bloodied, at the Mossos d’Esquadra police station in Lleida to confess to stabbing to death a 53-year-old woman with whom he was cohabiting in an apartment on Ciutat de Fraga Street. The case remains open on charges of murder. The same newspaper reports that the assailant, Mario C., had been released from prison four months earlier and had a history of prior convictions, including a 16-year prison sentence for killing an inmate at the Ponent prison in 2000.

The second incident dates from 12 April, when the Mossos d’Esquadra arrested two men over the death of a 22-year-old young man in a building on Valentí Almirall Street. According to La Ciutat, the victim fell into the light well following a fight with these two men, with whom he was living in an occupied building. The case is open on charges of homicide, assault, and failure to provide assistance.

What the data do not explain

None of the cited documents explains why the capital accounts for 36 of the province’s 60 cases of sexual assault involving penetration. The Ministry of the Interior’s report does not break down the location of the incidents, the circumstances, or the profiles of the perpetrators and victims, and therefore cannot answer that question.

What fell

According to the same report, the municipality’s total crime rate declined from 4,753 to 4,673 criminal offences. Robbery with violence or intimidation fell from 199 to 159, while burglary with force dropped from 100 to 84.

Sources and verification

This information is based on the Ministry of the Interior’s Crime Balance for the second quarter of 2026, which aggregates data from the National Police, the Civil Guard, the Mossos d’Esquadra, and local police forces, and on La Ciutat, which cites the figure for Lleida. These are provisional figures: the report itself notes that they are yet to be finalised. The balance records registered criminal offences, not convictions.