A nine-year-old girl has been found stabbed to death in Boston, England, amid a nationwide surge in police-recorded violent crime.
The unnamed girl is currently believed to have been stabbed at Fountain Lane, in an area with few residential properties nearby, after 6 p.m. on Thursday.
“We have launched a murder investigation. The area has been cordoned off and we will be at the scene for the foreseeable future,” Lincolnshire Police said of the incident in an official statement quoted by Sky News.
“The young girl’s parents have been informed and our thoughts are with them at this incredibly difficult time,” the force added, saying that the girl’s family would be “be supported by specialist trained officers.”
The apparent killing has shocked the local community, with the Member of Parliament (MP) for Boston and Skegness, Conservative politician Matt Warman, describing the incident as “[p]rofoundly shocking” but asking people not to speculate on the circumstances surrounding it.
“I have spoken to senior officers locally and am hugely grateful for all the emergency services’ work,” Warman said, adding that he had also been in touch with fellow Conservative politician Tom Pursglove, Minister of State for Crime and Policing at the Priti Patel-led Home Office, “to ensure that any national help that might be useful is made available as quickly as possible.”
The killing comes as police-recorded “high-harm offences” have surged, with homicides, in particular, up 25 per cent to 710.
Crimes of violence against the person, meanwhile, are up 18 per cent to approximately 2.1 million, with knife crime up 10 per cent 10 per cent to 49,027.
Crimes of a sexual nature have also risen sharply, with sexual offences up 32 per cent to fully 194,683, including 70,330 rapes — the highest number since comparable records began in 2002/03.
Officials have tried to suggest that the apparent breakdown of law and order in Britain is due to more people coming forward to report crimes and better recording — a common defelection in the face of worsening statistics — but it is hard to see how this could account for things like the 25 per cent increase in homicides.
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