About 10.45pm on Sunday, police and emergency services were called to Leumeah Place, Bolton Point, after reports of a stabbing.

A 35-year-old man was treated at the scene by NSW Ambulance paramedics before being taken to John Hunter Hospital. He died just before midnight.

Detectives from Lake Macquarie Police District and the State Crime Command’s Homicide Squad established Strike Force Larkview to investigate the circumstances surrounding the man’s death.

Following inquiries, just before 7pm on Monday, a 32-year-old man was arrested in a fast food restaurant at the corner of the Pacific Highway and Glover Street, Belmont.

He was taken to Belmont Police Station where he was charged with murder.

He was refused bail to appear in Newcastle Local Court.

Meanwhile, new crime data shows the number of assaults, robberies and thefts occurring in the Hunter has dropped in the past 15 years, but rates of drug and sexual offences have climbed.

NSW Police have recorded 11,330 fewer assaults and 7480 fewer robberies in the year to September 2018, compared to the same period in 2003.

Burglaries were down by 36,200 and car thefts had been reduced by 22,850.

But across the state, drug offences had more than doubled, and sex offences were up by about 40 per cent over the same period.

There were also 2776 more domestic assaults recorded in the year to September 2018 than in 2003.

The rate of drug offences had more than doubled in Lake Macquarie.

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