Questions that need to be asked

Why are dangerous sex offenders released on bail ?

Why are convicted sex offenders that have been convicted, yet are waiting to be sentenced released on bail, only then to be given the option of absconding ?

TWO rapes and four child sex attacks are committed every week by criminals out on bail, shocking figures reveal.

In all the serial offenders — freed by courts while waiting for their case to be heard — carried out 1,231 serious crimes last year.

It works out at more than 23 a week. Over the year, 102 rape attacks and 206 sex offences against kids were carried out by people on bail.

There were also 41 murders, 25 cases of manslaughter and 857 of grievous bodily harm.

That means more than one in every ten killings or serious assaults is now committed by a criminal who could have been locked up on remand.

Yearly crimes by people awaiting trial

• 41 murders

• 102 cases of rape

• 25 manslaughters

• 1 in 10 violent crimes

• 206 paedo attacks

• 857 GBHs

There has been a 20 per cent increase in the number of offences committed by villains on bail in just five years.

Among the offenders were Samuel Omar, 64, who abused a girl while on bail for another sex attack on a child.

Omar, of Semilong, Northants, spiked a 12-year-old’s drink and assaulted her, Northampton Crown Court heard. He has now been jailed indefinitely.

And Kevyn Viner, 18, of Newport, South Wales, got 11 years for raping two women — one while he was on bail.

The Ministry of Justice statistics will fuel fears courts are failing to protect the public by allowing too many criminals out while awaiting trial.

But the Government has pledged to allow prosecutors to appeal against decisions by judges to free suspected serious offenders on bail.

April 2012

Key child protection statistics

MORE than 400 children are sexually abused every week in Britain — one every 20 MINUTES, a shock investigation has revealed

The 43 police forces in England and Wales recorded23,097 child sex offences in 2011. That included rape, incest, child prostitution and pornography.

The annual figure is equivalent to 444 attacks a week — or one kiddie abused every 20 minutes.

Just as worryingly, only 2,135 of offences reported — ten per cent — led to someone actually being convicted and sentenced. Thousands of paedos escape scot-free.

December 2011

43% of sex criminals are spared prison sentences

ALMOST half of all sex offenders were spared jail last year. Lenient judges let 2,497 – or 43% – of the 5,784 convicted walk free from court.

The number of sex criminals allowed straight back into the community has increased by 20% over the past five years

Alarmingly, child abuse carried out by offenders within a year of their community sentences soared from 50 to 172 in four years – up 250%.

Sex attacks in total rocketed from 174 to 518 – 200% –and violent incidents soared 140% from 7,300 to 17,443

Even those sent to prison are often freed within months. A total of 17% of sex offenders are jailed for less than a year and 60% for less than three years. Separate figures showed sex assaults on boys and girls under 13 have more than doubled since 2004.