Ulster Unionist Justice Spokesman Basil McCrea has called for cool heads and rational response to the recent disgraceful attacks on elderly people in their own homes.
The Lagan Valley MLA said:
“There has been a great deal of publicity given to recent high profile cases in which criminal gangs broke into the homes of pensioners and subjected them to horrendous ordeals.
Some have called for new legislation as one means to tackle such crimes, others have called for mandatory minimum sentences.
Obviously violent crime against anyone has to be condemned. I believe that we must be careful and not allow knee-jerk reactions to cloud our judgements. It goes without saying that the cowards who carry out such attacks must be caught and brought before the courts and subjected to the full rigour of the law. We have laws already in place which make such attacks illegal and judges already take aggravating circumstances into account. We need to apply the laws we already have.
The incident in Dundrod was absolutely dreadful and a terrible ordeal for the gentleman concerned and his family.
However, the Police statistics as set out in “PSNI trends in Police Recorded crime in Northern Ireland” published 30 June 2011 indicate that the fear of crime is much greater than the actual incidence of crime and it is absolutely essential that we do not allow isolated cases to create a disproportionate climate of fear.
The statistics show that of 70,196 crimes committed in 2010/11 only 7 per cent were committed against people over 65. 9 per cent of crime takes place against people under 18.
Only one person in every thousand aged over the age of 65 is the victim of violence against the person, a rate of 0.1 per cent.
I absolutely appreciate this is cold comfort to those individuals and families who are affected by violent crime, and I repeat, that it is essential the perpetrators of these crimes are caught and punished, with punishments that fit the crime. But we must ensure that we make rational decisions based on the facts and don’t allow our response to be clouded by emotion, however understandable that might be."