Four-fold rise in arrests of foreign paedophiles
THE number of foreigners arrested in Britain and found to have child-sex convictions has increased almost four-fold in two years.
Chilling data from the UK’s criminal records office Acro shows the figure rose from 34 in 2014 to 164 in 2016.
Meanwhile, the number with murder or manslaughter convictions in their native countries trebled in the same period.
Statistics show 298 non-British killers were arrested in the UK in 2016 – up from 91 two years earlier. And the number of foreign rapists caught jumped from 133 in 2014 to 237 last year. Most of the convicted killers came to the UK from other EU nations.
They were able to slip in unchallenged with their murky past only coming to light when they were caught breaking the law here.
The shocking revelations last night prompted calls for tougher border controls.
Independent MEP Steven Woolfe said: “Freedom of movement from the EU brings the good, the bad and the ugly. Only by introducing strong border checks and visas after Brexit can we hope to stop the bad, ugly and downright evil.”
In 2015 Raimondas Jakstas, 26, was jailed for attacking a neighbour in Boston, Lincs. He had served five years for beating someone to death in Lithuania.
Arnis Zalkalns, 41, was the prime suspect in the murder of Alice Gross, 14, in Hanwell, west London, in 2014 when he hanged himself.
He had moved to the UK after serving a jail sentence for murdering his wife in his native Latvia.
He was jailed for 12 years in 1997 but released in 2003. He arrived here in 2005 and four years later he was accused of indecently assaulting a girl of 14 in London.
The Acro statistics also reveal the nationalities of foreign criminals arrested in Britain.
In the past three years 175 Romanian, 64 Polish and 55 Lithuanian killers have been arrested here.
During the same period 181 Romanian, 153 Polish and 53 Lithuanian rapists were held by British police for other offences.
Ukip home affairs spokeswoman Jane Collins said: “These figures are horrifying. We must institute proper border controls.”
THE dangerous flaw in our opendoor borders is highlighted by the revelation that the number of foreigners arrested in Britain then found to have murder or manslaughter convictions in their home countries has more than trebled in just two years.
This is not xenophobic fantasy dreamed up by the far-Right but an official statistic from the UK’s criminal records office.
A staggering 298 non-British killers were arrested here in 2016 – up from 91 two years earlier. The number of rapists arrested rose from 133 to 237 and the number of paedophiles from 34 to 164. Because most of them are from the EU they slip in unnoticed, detected only when they commit a crime here.
We must have the right to vet all those who enter our country before it’s too late and more innocent people pay a heavy price.