Growing number of serial young thugs

THE number of teenage tearaways known to Greater Manchester Police for committing three of more crimes is soaring year on year, new figures reveal.

According to the Ministry of Justice, the number of known persistent young offenders has soared across the region from 817 in 1997 to 1,251 last year.

The number of offences committed by the troublesome children has also increased, from 1,431 to 2,336 in the same period.

A persistent young offender (PYO) is anyone aged 10 to 17 who has been found guilty by any court in the UK on three or more separate occasions for one or more recordable offence, and within three years of the last sentencing.

The number of crimes solved and offending PYOs brought to justice has also risen, from 2.61 per cent in 2000 to 2.96 per cent, according to latest MoJ figures.

Ministers have pledged to halve the average time from arrest to sentence for dealing with PYOs in England and Wales from 142 days to 71 days. The target was first met in 2002 and has been met in all but one year since.

Justice Minister David Hanson said in a response to MPs: “Young offenders are now being dealt with twice as quickly as they were prior to 1997, which means that there are much shorter intervals between sentencing occasions for those youths who repeatedly offend.

“Youth sentencing is therefore more timely, and for repeat offenders more frequent, than it used to be.”

But the Tories, who uncovered the figures, said Labour was failing to be tough on crime and young people no longer feared the criminal justice system. Shadow Justice Minister Nick Herbert said: “The number of serial young offenders has almost doubled under Labour, and in some areas one in seven crimes is committed by a young person who has already been dealt with by the courts three times previously.

“Final warnings which aren’t final, fines which aren’t paid and weak community sentences which aren’t properly enforced, have led to a hardcore of young offenders who have no fear of the criminal justice system.”