Just 16 children were responsible for the majority of juvenile crime that occurred in the island last year.

The revelation came as Chief Constable Gary Roberts gave evidence to Tynwald’s Constitutional and Legal Affairs Committee.

Mr Roberts revealed that the small group were responsible for 275 offences.

The 16 main offenders last year committed 275 offences.

Of the 16 main offenders, 15 were male and one was a female.

Mr Roberts stated that these children are dealing with ‘significant issues’.

He stated that 13 of the 16 have significant mental health problems, 11 were long term drug misusers, and two have significant alcohol problems.

Of the offences they committed, about two thirds of them were criminal damage, theft, or minor assaults.

The most commonly stolen commodity was alcohol.

Mr Roberts stated that this was ‘quite low level offending, but nevertheless important offending’.

Before revealing the data, Mr Roberts explained the process which sees police deal with troubled children.

He said: ‘There are several component parts to the system, and the first component part is a thing we call “Link”, which is a referral scheme for young people for when they first start to get dragged into trouble.

‘So, if they’re in a group of kids who are a being a nuisance to say an elderly resident – they’re knocking on the door and running away – that Link process sees them coming to us.

‘For most kids, we’ll write a letter to their parents, and that’ll be enough, but for others, they then go down a graduated route which involves a further letter sometimes, it involves a face to face meeting with them and their parents, it can involve going on a diversionary scheme, so the diversionary scheme might be in respect of them using drugs, using alcohol, or because of how they’ve driven, or if they are starting fires, we have a special firestarter scheme – and most young people at that stage stop offending.

‘Some however get into the justice system properly and they are cautioned, or they’re prosecuted in the juvenile court.’

In the 2021 year (the year to the end of March 31, 2021), 315 young people in the island went into the Link scheme.

Of this figure, 164 young people went on to enter the juvenile court system.

Mr Roberts described 27 of these 164 as ‘persistent and really quite complex offenders’ and said that between them, they ‘commit an awful lot of the offences on the island’.

This year (up until Friday, March 4), there are 323 young people in the Link referral scheme.

Mr Roberts stated that: ‘Of that 323, 33 have gone on to commit other offences – about 11%.’

He also stated that the 27 offenders who committed the majority of offences last year are ‘on a similar pattern’ this year.

While the Chief Constable did not have the exact data regarding how many offences they have committed so far this year, he said: ‘It will be in excess of the 275.

‘We’re talking 300 and odd offences committed by 27 young people.’

Last week, the editorial comment column in the Manx Independent discussed the complex issues some repeat offenders are dealing with, and mused on whether these issues are best dealt with within the criminal justice system.

Mr Roberts tweeted in response, saying: ‘The worlds of offending, vulnerability, mental health and addiction are so often entwined and recognising this will help us become an even safer place.’