Pre-teen Westergate girl charged with two break-ins

The pre-teen has been remanded by the court in relation to the alleged offences.

Her suspected involvement in crime was mentioned by Chief Inspector Jim Bartlett, the Arun district's police commander, when he spoke to county, district and town councillors.

He said: "It's very tragic when a 12-year-old female is committing burglary."

He said that the girl, who cannot be publicly identified, came from outside the Downland area. She was not previously known to the police.

His revelation came during a brief breakdown of crime figures to the Downland joint area committee, which stretches from Aldingbourne through Walberton to Findon.

He said the past year had seen significant progress made in fighting crime.

The one disappointment had been a rise of ten more burglaries in the period.

But break-ins of other buildings, criminal damage and injuries to individuals were all substantially down.

For non-dwelling burglaries, the number had dropped by 30 offences, just over 20 per cent, from 150 instances.

Reported incidents of criminal damage dropped by 19, just over seven per cent, from 280.

Injuries to individuals dropped by 50 from 200 instances to 150.

Actual bodily harm cases were down by a similar percentage to drop from about 100 by 23 offences.