ALMOST 400 killers have been free to roam Britain’s streets in the past ten
years, The Sun can reveal.
Since 2006, 393 homicides remain unresolved sparking fears cops and courts are
failing to tackle violent crime.
The figures only represent the number of victims killed, meaning the actual
number of murderers on the loose could be much higher as some cases are
believed to have had multiple attackers.
London tops the list of most killers at large with 111 – almost double Greater
Manchester in second with 61.
Northern Ireland and West Midlands are the next highest with 31, Essex with 28
and Merseyside with 25.
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Under the Freedom of Information Act, The Sun requested the number of unsolved
murders year-on-year from all 44 police forces in the UK.
The figures come after the total number of murders and manslaughter deaths in
England and Wales increased by 14 per cent to 574 last year – or 11 deaths a
week.
Labour MPs blamed the rise in violent crime on the Government’s slashing of
18,000 police officers and budgets.
Jack Dromey, Labour’s Shadow Police Minister, told The Sun: “Police recorded
crime is rising and some of the most serious crimes have soared to the
highest levels in years.
“Just as the most serious and violent crimes are soaring, so too are the
demands on a depleted police force to keep the country safe.
“No wonder 50 per cent of cases close without a single suspect ever having
been identified, and now we know that there have been hundreds of unsolved
murders in the UK in the past ten years.
“The Tories have slashed police officers by over 18,000 and broke their
promise to the public to protect frontline officer numbers.
“The first duty of any Government is the safety and security of our citizens.
By overseeing the sharpest decline in police numbers anywhere in the EU, the
Tories are letting the British people down.”
Karen Stephens, of the Police Federation’s National Detective Forum, admitted
the figures were worrying, but pointed the finger at the Crown Prosecution
Service for not doing enough to achieve convictions at court.
She added: “It’s impossible to be more specific about the figures without
knowing more about the circumstances behind these cases, but it is obviously
not acceptable that there are any unsolved murders.
“However officers work tirelessly to find offenders and bring them to court,
therefore allowing the families of the victims some answers.
“It’s possible that although there are no convictions it doesn’t mean that
offenders haven’t been caught.
“It is possible that due to certain circumstances, or evidence, there is not
enough to prosecute or in the public interest. This, of course, is a CPS
decision.”
However, the CPS claimed they are only able to act on the evidence police
officers gather.
A spokesman added: “We work hard to bring offenders to justice.
“When we receive a file from the police we take action to consider all
evidence and see if charges can be brought.”
Only eight of Britain’s 44 police forces – or 18 per cent – had no unsolved
murders in the past decade.
The number of open cases in the past ten years has declined since the previous
decade – 564 murders went unsolved between 1997 and 2006 across the UK.
However, the majority of those were in London, where cases halved from 269 to
111.
Excluding London, the number of unsolved murders elsewhere in the UK only
dropped from 295 to 282 – a 4.4 per cent decrease.
In many other areas the number of unsolved murders grew – Greater Manchester
rose from 41 to 61 and West Midlands from 30 to 31.
Rose Dixon, who provides help for the families of victims through charity
Support After Murder and Manslaughter, revealed the impact an unsolved
murder has on the victims’ loved ones.
She added: “These figures represent 393 very traumatised families. The one
thing a family wants after a murder is for the offender to be caught and if
that doesn’t happen it is very distressing for them.
“They will often spend a lot of their time thinking about who has done it.
When they walk down the street or sit next to somebody on a bus you wonder
if he or she could have done it.
“How can you trust anybody if you don’t know who the person is? And sometimes
the families may well have been told by police who they think has done it.
But if they can’t get the evidence then they can’t proceed with the trial.
“Sometimes the police will have the evidence but the CPS will sometimes say
the chances of getting a conviction are not high enough and cannot proceed.
“Sometimes both the police and CPS know who the killer is but because of a
technicality the person is either acquitted or the case is thrown out and
that person is free to just go back into the community where the victim’s
family and friends live.
“I’ve seen cases where this has happened and the suspect has then gone on to
taunt the person’s families and laugh in their faces. It is horrendous for
these poor families.
“It can be difficult to persuade police to reopen cold cases and quite often
the responsibility lies within the community to come forward with new
evidence to provide the necessary information.”