Sharp rise in new crimes by serious offenders

The number of serious offenders who committed further grave crimes while living in the community rose 17 per cent last year, official figures have revealed.

A total of 174 registered sex offenders and violent criminals being supervised by probation officers were charged with a serious further offence last year, which can include murder, rape and manslaughter, the Multi-Agency Public Protection Arrangements (Mappa) annual report said.

It was a 17 per cent increase in offenders charged with a serious further offence, from 149 in 2012-13 and was the highest total since 2009-10.

Of the 174 offences, 31 were committed by more serious offenders who were categorised as "violent" or "dangerous", including some who probation officers believed posed a "risk of serious harm" to the public.

The remaining 143 new crimes were committed by registered sex offenders.

In all there were just over 65,000 offenders living in the community on Mappa arrangements, which see police, probation and other professionals such as psychiatrists working to mininise the risk posed by the offenders.

The criminals have been released to live in the community because they have reached the end of custodial sentences and cannot be kept behind bars any longer. But the Mappa teams aim to prevent them reoffending and in the most extreme cases the offenders will be kept under surveillance.

Separate reoffending figures published by the Ministry of Justice last week showed more than 17,000 prisoners released into the community after serving short jail terms went on to commit new crimes last year.

The breakdown disclosed that more than 2,000 adult offenders committed a violent crime within 12 months of being freed.

A further 10,200 ex-prisoners who had previously served a short sentence went on to commit theft and 125 were convicted of a sex crime within 12 months, the data showed.

In separate "safety in custody" statistics, the number of deaths in prison increased 19 per cent to 235 in the 12 months to the end of September, from 198 in the same period the previous year.

The death rate increased to 2.8 deaths per 1,000 prisoners, compared with 2.3 in the previous period.

There was also a 38 per cent rise in the number of self-inflicted deaths to 87 in the 12 months to September, from 63, the highest number of suicides since 2007.