“Twenty-eight persons were charged with 60 offences”
The Northern Ireland Office has released a Research and Statistical Bulletin 10/2009 entitled “Northern Ireland Statistics on the Operation of the Terrorism Act 2000: Annual Statistics 2008″ [pdf file]
During 2008:
· There were 59 designated cordons under section 33.
· Under section 37, Schedule 5, there were 108 premises searched under warrant by the Police Service of Northern Ireland.
· There were 150 persons detained under section 41 of the Act, 125 (83%) of whom were held for 48 hours or less.
· There were 24 applications for extensions of detention, all of which were granted.
· Twenty-eight persons were charged with 60 offences including 6 persons charged with murder, 20 firearms offences and 4 explosives offences.
· Six persons were charged with 7 Terrorism Act offences including 3 for possession for terrorist purposes, 2 offences under section 15 (fundraising) and 2 offences for membership.
· There were 54 requests to have someone informed of detention, all of which were granted immediately.
· There were 148 requests for access to a solicitor, 147 of which were granted immediately.
· Under section 44, there were 6,922 persons, and 6,016 vehicles stopped and searched during 2008.
· Under section 80, of the 28 persons sentenced for a scheduled offence none had committed the offence during a period of remission from prison.
· There was 1 requisition order and 5 de-requisition orders made during 2008.
· Compensation payments (including solicitors’ and loss assessors’ fees and Agency payments) totalled £129,689.
Perhaps the most interesting table from the bulletin
Table 10: Power to stop and search: Number of person and vehicle searches under section
44 of the Terrorism Act (1)
Year – Number of persons stopped and searched – Number of vehicles stopped and searched
2005 – 204 – 156
2006 – 948 – 791
2007 – 2,167 – 1,801
2008 Jan–Mar – 1,400 – 1,127
2008 Apr–Jun – 1,341 – 1,123
2008 Jul–Sept – 1,657 – 1,689
2008 Oct–Dec – 2,524 – 2,077
2008 TOTAL – 6,922 – 6,016
Note: 1. Data not available before July 2005.
Source: Police Service of Northern Ireland
Now that IS interesting. Just look at the date of the shift in the figures.
Will you read that detail in the mainstream, tomorrow? Yet if you ever wanted clear evidence of ‘the Peace Processing deal’, how could you do better than that?