Police minister visit after sleepy town takes most murderous title for England and Wales
A SPIKE in serious crime has catapulted an historic market town to top the murder capital table of England and Wales.
A SPIKE in serious crime has catapulted an historic market town to top the murder capital table of England and Wales.
Sleepy Boston has been left with the moniker no one wants as the county of Lincolnshire claims two places in the top five of newly-published analysis of Home Office statistics.
Data provided by the Office for National Statistics charted the number of cases of murder, attempted murder and conspiracy to murder in the 12 months to September 2015.
Two homicides and eight attempted murders were recorded in the Boston area, scaling to 15 murderous crimes for every 100,000 residents the highest rate for any area in England and Wales.
The most murderous town list formulated by the Daily Mirror has upset MP Matt Warman who criticised the ranking but acknowledged that there is a situation which needs addressing with Government help.
The Conservative MP for Skegness and Boston said: “I`m absolutely clear that any crime is a problem in Boston and that`s why I`ve made sure the Police Minister Mike Penning has visited.
“It is why I`ve met the Home Secretary about the issue and it is why I`m totally committed to getting the police the resources they need.
“While we have seen a handful of serious incidents recently, they remain exceptionally rare and almost entirely domestic.
“I regard this as a particularly illiterate use of statistics, but it does add evidence for my case to the Home Secretary and others.”
Boston finished top of the pile and Lincoln fifth.
Second on the list was the tiny area of the City of London with 12.4 crimes per 100,000 people. Gloucester was third on the list with ten murderous crimes a rate of eight for every 100,000 residents while Blackpool was fourth with 11 at a rate of 7.8 for every 100,000.
And Lincoln was fifth with 7.3 for every 100,000.
Lincolnshire Police Superintendent Paul Timmins said: “Using population data to compare crime rates will inevitably not provide the truest national picture but we do acknowledge that there have been a number of tragic incidents in Boston in recent years.
“In most cases, arrests, charges and convictions followed swiftly and Lincolnshire remains a low crime county with one of the lowest recorded rates for violent crime in the country.”
Across England and Wales as a whole the number of homicides increased by 14 per cent from 502 to 573 over the same period.
Cases of conspiracy to murder were up from 33 to 46 while attempted murders increased by a fifth from 511 to 611.
Year to Sept 2015
Area; Number of murderous crimes; Crimes per 100,000 people
1. Boston; 10; 15.0
2. City of London; 1; 12.4
3. Gloucester; 10; 8.0
4. Blackpool; 11; 7.8
5. Lincoln; 7; 7.3
6. Manchester; 33; 6.3
7. Salford; 15; 6.2
8. Rochdale; 13; 6.1
9. Hackney; 15; 5.7
10. Amber Valley; 7; 5.6
11. East Northamptonshire; 5; 5.6
12. Stoke-on-Trent; 14; 5.6
13. Islington; 12; 5.4
14. Broxbourne; 5; 5.2
15. Kettering; 5; 5.2
16. Westminster; 12; 5.1
17. Tendring; 7; 5.0
18. Basildon; 9; 5.0
19. Waverley; 6; 4.9
20. Greenwich; 13; 4.8