ALARM AT HUGE RISE IN VIOLENT CRIME AND MUGGINGS

Major surge in sexual assaults while aggravated burglaries have rocketed by a horrifying 19%

ALARM has been expressed at a surge in violent crimes such as rape, violent robberies and muggings, illustrated by new Garda figures.

The figures, collected from the Garda Pulse system by the Central Statistics Office and published yesterday, show an almost 20% increase in the number of rapes – rising to 671 in the 12month

period up to June 2018, compared with a year earlier.

Overall, sexual assaults shot up by more than 10%. Similarly, aggravated burglaries – where someone commits a burglary with a weapon – rose by 18.8% to 247, while muggings jumped

by 14.3%, or 173, to 1,381. Robbery from establishments or institutions also surged by an alarming 21.5% to 791.

The number of murders jumped by 12.5% from 40 to 45, while murder threats surged by a worrying 28.6% to 886. By contrast, murder attempts fell by four to 13.

Overall, there were increases in nine of the Garda force’s 14 crime categories, while just four decreased and one remained the same over the period.

However, despite claims he has presided over an overstretched Garda force that has contributed to the crime surge, Justice Minister Charlie Flanagan emphasised the positives from the statistics, and praised Garda progress in tackling gangland crime.

Sinn Féin justice spokesman Donnchadh Ó Laoghaire said the increase in robbery and sexual offences was a serious concern.

‘The figures... do not make for positive reading, and the Minister for Justice must be more proactive regarding crime prevention,’ he said. ‘Despite what the Minister tells us, many Garda stations are running to standstill. Most Garda stations are still only just at or below 2010 levels.

‘Couple that with an outright ban on overtime for the rest of the year and we are heading for a long winter with gardaí being pulled and stretched in every direction.

‘There are close to 3,000 sexual offences recorded, a 10% increase when compared to this time last year... we need clarification as to why this figure is increasing, and support services in this area must be given the funding they require to deal with their caseloads in the upcoming Budget.’

Minister Flanagan said he was ‘disappointed’ to see a rise in theft offences but added that the figures remain at low levels when compared to the years up to 2016.

He also pointed to the fact that there was no change to the total number of homicide offences and pointed to the ‘significant work’ undertaken by An Garda Síochána to prevent further loss of life arising from gangland feuds.

He said: ‘An Garda Síochána continue to make significant progress in tackling the insidious threat of organised crime, particularly in Dublin’s north inner city. Operation Hybrid is a targeted, proactive response to the ongoing attempts by criminal gangs to commit murder in recent years.’

He went on to say that ‘brave’ gardaí have prevented over 50 murders since Operation Hybrid commenced. While the widespread increases will cause alarm among the public, the CSO yesterday highlighted that it was publishing the figures ‘under reservation’, due to concerns over the accurate recording of Garda statistics in recent years.

‘The Pulse system on which gardaí record crimes is the only source of crime data available to the CSO to produce statistics,’ it said. The CSO first suspended the publication of Recorded Crime statistics in 2014 following a Garda Inspectorate report identifying concerns over the recording of data on the Pulse system.

After a review into the system and following concerns over homicide reporting, a decision was made to suspend the publication of the reports for 12 months.

After publishing statistics in 2015, further quality issues in early 2017 prompted the CSO to postpone further publication.

While the CSO has decided to resume publication of crime statistics, the Pulse data is subject to a number of separate ongoing quality reviews and does not currently meet the CSO’s standards for completeness and accuracy, the CSO said.

The CSO is engaging with An Garda Síochána to set out the criteria for lifting this reservation.