Huge rise in violence and sex crime

CRIME has increased by 14 per cent across Greater Manchester, and sexual offences and violent assaults have soared.

New figures show in the 12 months up to September the number of overall crimes recorded by Greater Manchester Police reached 215,005. Sexual offences jumped by 46 per cent to 5,611 and violent crime rose by 36 per cent to 47,639.

Shoplifting was up by nine per cent to 16,644, vehicle offences increased by eight per cent to 23,200 and theft was up by five per cent to 104,506.

But there were falls in cases of robbery - down by 10 per cent to 3,505; burglary by four per cent to 27,816 and drug offences by 23 per cent to 5,863.

Greater Manchester interim mayor and police and crime commissioner Tony Lloyd said: “The public will rightly be worried that overall crime is undoubtedly on the rise. That’s why I, along with the support of many people across Greater Manchester, urged the Government to pull back from its relentless and reckless programme of cuts.

“But the fact remains that since 2010, Greater Manchester Police has lost 2,000 officers and still needs to save £70 million over the next three years.

“This is one of the reasons I’m asking Greater Manchester residents to pay an extra 10p a week from their council tax towards policing.“

GMP deputy chief constable Ian Pilling said: “We recognise that any rise in crime is going to be concerning to the communities we serve.

“I can say, however, that we are continuing to change the way we police to help us concentrate on those crimes which pose the greatest risk or harm to the public.

“Also, while there is a rise in recorded crime we have actually seen a reduction in incidents reported to us. This tells us part of the rise can be attributed to our improved compliance with national recording standards, which came into force last year.”