CHILDREN aged nine and younger have committed 12 crimes in Cambridgeshire in the last year - including theft, assault and racial harassment.
The age of criminal responsibility is 10 - but figures released by Cambridgeshire Police revealed crimes committed by children as young as seven.
Responding to a Freedom of Information request, the police revealed that seven children aged nine and under committed offences in Peterborough in the financial year 2011/12.
These included assault, criminal damage and one seven-year-old who had stolen from a shop.
An eight-year-old was recorded as having stolen a bike in Huntingdon, while a nine-year-old had caused “racially or religiously aggravated intentional harassment, alarm or distress” in Sawtry.
A nine-year-old had made off without payment in Ely and eight-year-olds in St Neots and Littleport had caused criminal damage.
The police added that “because the age of criminal responsibility is deemed to be 10 or over, this would have an impact on the methods of resolution, and consequently on the offender status of the detection of the crime.”
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