CHILDREN under the age of 10 - and as young as three - are responsible for up to five crimes a week across Greater Manchester, the M.E.N can reveal today.

Officers have recorded hundreds of crimes a year by children too young to be prosecuted - including arson attacks, sexual and racial assaults, firearms offences, knife crime and even rape.

More than 1,200 offences by the under 10s have been logged by Greater Manchester Police in the past five years, revealing a 'hidden problem' of criminal behaviour in young children across the region.

They include sexual offences committed by kids as young as five and assaults by three-year-olds. Because youngsters under 10 are beneath the legal age of criminal responsibility they cannot be cautioned, charged or prosecuted. Many escape with a telling-off from police in front of their parents.

An average of 243 crimes-a-year - and up to five-a-week - were logged in the five years from 2004 to 2008, with another 27 recorded in the first three months of this year. Among the most shocking incidents are:

  • A three-year-old who carried out a racial assault occasioning actual bodily harm in Salford
  • A five-year-old who caused or incited another child, a girl, to engage in sexual activity in Bury
  • A seven-year-old who caused arson with intent to endanger life in Wigan
  • A nine-year-old raped another child in Manchester

Scores of children, as young as four, are listed for criminal damage, common assault, shoplifting and public order offences. Five three-year-olds are listed - one for racial assault, one for common assault and three for damage to a vehicle.

Manchester Blackley MP Graham Stringer said he feared the figures were just the tip of the iceberg of a 'hidden problem'. He said: "It's really a problem with the parents. Some of the things these children are accused of are very serious and I think there needs to be more police intervention in the shape of parenting orders or even looking at taking children into care.

"What we can't do is pretend there's not a problem and leave dangerous children in limbo.

"This is a significant problem and what these figures expose is that it's a far bigger problem than people may have thought."

Mr Stringer said he would be asking questions in parliament on how the problem can be tackled in parliament but was not in favour of lowering the age of criminal culpability.

Det Supt Phil Owen, of Greater Manchester Police, explained: "If we come across a juvenile under the age of ten who has committed a crime, we can take appropriate steps to refer them to social services and other agencies.

He added: "It is always very disappointing when young children are involved in crime and I think there is a wider responsibility for all agencies to respond, not just to the needs of the victim, but also the offender."

A Manchester council spokesperson added: "Where we become aware of acts of a criminal nature by children as part of the work we do with families we work to support parents in dealing with these aspects of their child's behaviour."

The Youth Justice Board, which carries out preventative work with children aged eight and above, said said: "Prevention is always better than cure. We know that if young people haven't committed a crime by 14 years of age then it's unlikely that they ever will. With facts like these and the considerable savings to local businesses, not to mention the courts, it is clear why targeted prevention is a sensible approach."