Suspected offenders include children aged two

CHILDREN AS young as two were among those suspected of crimes across Yorkshire in the past four years, it can be revealed.

In West Yorkshire, police dealt with 1,660 crimes involving suspects under 10 from 2014 to 2017 figures show.

This included a two-year-old and a six-year-old jointly suspected of a sexual offence in Leeds in 2016 and a two-year-old and an eight-year-old jointly suspected of a sexual offence in Bradford in 2015.

Over the same period in South Yorkshire, officers dealt with 483 crimes involving suspects under 10, including 25 allegations of rape of a child.

A two-year-old was suspected of sexual assault on a female child, a nine-year-old was suspected of possessing a firearm and two eight-year-olds were suspected of possessing cannabis, information released by South Yorkshire Police shows.

In the Humberside Police force area, there were 371 crimes where the suspects were aged under 10, the youngest aged two.

Crimes by suspects aged nine or under included rape of a female child, arson endangering life, burglary, knife possession and robbery.

In North Yorkshire, there were just 10 children aged nine or under suspected of crimes over the four-year-period, data released by its police force showed.

Suspects included a five-yearold girl and a five-year-old boy.

The crimes included violence and sexual offences.

Across Yorkshire, there were a total of 2,446 crimes where the suspects were under the age of criminal responsibility.

Two-fifths of them (42 per cent) were violent crimes.

Violent crimes by under-10s rose six-fold from 64 across the region in 2014 to 425 last year, the figures secured under the Freedom of Information Act showed.