Children aged 14 or even younger committed robberies and sexual offences in Wales last year, new figures show.
The data, compiled by the Youth Justice Board for England and Wales, show that young people aged between 10 and 14 either admitted to or were convicted of 10 robberies and 46 sexual offences in Wales in 2014/15.
In total, young people between 10 and 17 years old in North Wales, were proven to have committed 1,173 crimes last year.
Nationally, the figure is 4,546 crimes.
Young people in Wrexham were the most likely to get into trouble in North Wales, with 449 proven crimes committed, followed by Conwy and Denbighshire with 321, Gwynedd and Anglesey with 235 and Flintshire with 268.
The age of criminal responsibility in Wales is 10 years old - children any younger can’t be charged with a crime.
Councillor Keith Gregory, who represents Smithfield on Wrexham Council, said that anti-social behaviour amongst young people on the Caia Park estate was a big problem.
He said: “These figures are really bad. We all know there are problems from arson and I know that in Caia Park, all sorts of things have been tried to combat this.
“We have had extra PCSO’s and people from the Caia Park Partnership going around the estate chatting to groups of people at nighttime.
“But we need to start policing the estate a lot more with proper police, not just PCSO’s.
A spokesman for NSPCC Cymru said they were aware that many sex offences against children are committed by their peers.
The spokesman added: “We know many sex offences against children are committed by their peers and it’s crucial that work continues, to understand why this behaviour is adopted.
“Ensuring these young people receive treatment and boosting the availability of support for their victims is key.
“Easy access to sexual material can warp young people’s views of what is ‘normal’ or acceptable behaviour and more must be done to help shield children from the effects of that.
“This week NSPCC Cymru launched a new campaign calling for boosted access to child and adolescent mental health services in Wales, after our research showed professional concerns over long delays and inadequate provision.”
Statistics also show that the most common crime for young Welsh people to be caught doing was violence against the person, which accounted for a fifth of the 4,546 offences commited.
There were 724 cases of young Welsh people stealing or handling stolen goods, 404 motoring offences and 24 cases of fraud or forgery.
Some 83% of these crimes were committed by boys.
Proven youth crime has come down by 70% across England and Wales since 2004/05.
see-http://www.dailypost.co.uk/news/north-wales-news/north-wales-child-criminals-carry-10812840
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