There was on average one sex attack every 10 days in the Galway West Garda division during the last four years, according to figures released by the Central Statistics Office.
The Recorded Crime Offences for the third quarter of 2008, released by the CSO last week, show that during the months of July to September there were a total of eight cases of rape and sexual assault. Since January of this year there were 39 cases.
When the CSO figures for every quarter since January 2004 were examined it emerged that there was a minimum of eight cases - working out at a case every 10 days. The highest number of cases occurred in the first quarter of 2004 with a shocking 38 cases. Other high incidents occurred in first and third quarters of 2005, and the first quarter of 2007 with 20 cases.
When it comes to murder, from 2006 to September 2008 there was a total of six murder cases. Since the beginning of 2008 there has been one case of dangerous driving causing death but there were 12 cases since 2004.
In Galway West since 2004 there has been a total of 3,052 recorded cases of attempts/threats to murder, assault, harassments, and related offences. In the third quarter of 2008 alone, there were 193 recorded cases, between April and June there were 208, and between January and March there were 192 cases. When this category is broken down it is revealed that this year there were three murder threats, 118 cases of harassment, and 106 cases of assault causing harm or poisoning.
There were nine cases of kidnapping or related offences since 2004 with two occurring this year alone; one case of false imprisonment was in the third quarter of 2008 while one case of child abduction took place in the second quarter.
Other CSO figures included 10 cases of cultivation or manufacturing of drugs, 49 cases of drug dealing and 38 cases of robbery, extortion, and hijacking offences in 2008.
