Police are reporting an increase in reported rape cases, murders and shootings in Manchester since the start of the year compared to the corresponding period last year (January 1 – October 10).

Deputy superintendent of police in charge of operations, Lloyd Darby, told the monthly sitting of the Manchester Municipal Corporation last Thursday that the parish has recorded 30 murders since the start of the year, nine more than in the corresponding period last year.

However, Darby cast a positive light on the clear-up rate for murders and cited a decrease in reported robberies and other major crimes as well as increased gun finds.

“During the same period 20 murders have been cleared. For the clear-up, the division of Manchester stands as the third highest in the island with 67 per cent,” he said.

He attributed seven of the murders in Manchester this year to gang activities while “five were perpetrated in the course of a robbery, four suggest that the perpetrators might have been contracted to carry out the attacks.”

Darby said 35 shootings have been recorded since the start of the year, two more than the same period last year. The number of reported rape cases in Manchester is up by 30 per cent with there being 26 reported cases compared to 20 for the previous period under review. Sixty-six robberies have been recorded so far this year compared to 88 for the previous corresponding period, a decrease of 25 per cent. Break-ins are down by seven per cent. Larceny is down 36 per cent. Darby said that the Manchester police have been reaping success in illegal firearm seizures. “We have been doing well in the seizure of illegal firearms. We have seized 23 illegal firearms for 2019. For the corresponding period we had seized 14. For the entire year of 2018 we had seized 18 firearms, so already in October we are up by five seizures. We continue to go with this effort, and we have found that for a number of years round about 85 per cent of our murders have been committed with the use of a firearm,” said DSP Darby.