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A TEN-YEAR-old burglar and a 13-year-old sex offender are among almost 1,500 York children who have been caught committing crimes in the city in the last year.

Shocking new figures, obtained exclusively by The Press under the Freedom of information Act, show that 1,470 offences were committed by children aged ten to 17 in just 12 months.

Among them were a ten-year-old from the Westfield area who received a final warning by police for breaking into a house in August last year, a 12-year-old who was charged with mugging someone in the Skelton area in February, and the city's youngest car thief - aged only 13 - who stole a vehicle from Hull Road in June.

Police say they are now looking at new ways to stop youngsters from being "sucked into a life of crime" at an early age.

The figures detail all the crimes police found to have been committed by juveniles between April 1, 2007, and March 31, 2008.

They show ten-year-olds were responsible for eight crimes, including assault, criminal damage, theft and violence, as well as burglary.

Twenty-five offences were committed by 11-year-olds, and a further 51 were carried out by children aged 12, while a shocking 117 crimes were carried out by 13-year-olds, including four house burglaries, six non-domestic burglaries and 49 thefts.

Fourteen-year-olds committed 184 offences, fifteen-year-olds carried out 275 and 16-year-olds were responsible for 391.

Inspector Dave Kirby said most young offenders tend to fall into two categories - those who only get into trouble once and then never again, and those who progress into more serious crimes.

He said: "There are those who start off with criminal damage and antisocial behaviour, then move on to shoplifting and theft of pedal cycles and then start breaking into cars. In the general rule, there is a progression - but there are always exceptions to the rule.

"There will be a small minority of repeat offenders in that age group who are responsible for a good proportion of the crime."

Chief Insp Dave Hall of York Police said there "certainly isn't an epidemic" of juvenile crime in the city.

"We have juvenile crime, but no more than in any comparable area, probably less, but we are doing a lot of innovative work with our safer neighbourhood teams to identify those young people coming on to our radar who might get into a life of crime if we don't nip it in the bud," he said.

He gave the example of a teenage girl who had been in trouble with the police until they found out she liked horses, and arranged for her to work at a local stables.

"It has taken her away from a life of crime and given her a sense of purpose," he said.

"We need to get away from enforcement all the time and prevent that escalation into the criminal frame of mind."

10:15am Wednesday 7th May 2008

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