Criminals in the care of the Probation Service have committed the equivalent of almost a murder a week over the past two years, according to figures published yesterday.
The report by the Ministry of Justice showed that there were 1,034 convictions for serious further offences committed between 2007 and 2009 by offenders under supervision. These included 94 murder convictions, 105 rapes, 43 arson attacks, 57 kidnaps and 762 other serious violent or sex crimes for which the maximum sentence is ten years or more.
However, year on year, the number of such convictions in England and Wales has fallen, from 672 in 2007-08 to 362 in 2008-09. Murders were down from 66 to 28, rapes from 62 to 43 and arson attacks from 32 to 11.
