Paphos police worried at rise in juvenile crime

By Phanis Droushiotis

PAPHOS police have expressed concern at the increasing levels of juvenile crime in the area.

Paphos police chief Spyros Koniotis said yesterday the fact that under aged youths were getting involved in crime, sometimes serious, had led the police authorities to request help from wherever it could come.

Officer Daniel Makariou told the Cyprus Mail that the figures were rising dangerously. “We have more than 500 cases of under aged suspects being arrested in 1999, and the Constitution does not allow us to imprison them or even detain them. This must be stopped as soon as possible,” he said. He called on parents to be more careful and he requested help from the Ministry of Education as well.

Police worries emerged during a discussion on Monday with reporters, with police saying the recent robbery of an Inia Coop Bank by a 16-year-old was “a result of TV violence.”

Parents and television were also blamed for a car accident that happened in the early hours yesterday.

Panayiotis Cleanthis and Georgia Ioannou, both aged 16, suffered serious injuries when the car illegally driven by Cleanthis overturned on the Polis to Paphos road due to high speed. The children’s’ parents yesterday declared they had not known their offspring were on the road.

A Traffic Department source told the Cyprus Mail that the Ministry of Education had failed to include road safety lessons in primary and secondary schools – “a costly delay,” he added.

The Cyprus Mail is the only English-language daily newspaper published in Cyprus. It was established in 1945 and today, with its popular and widely-read website, the Cyprus Mail is among the most trusted news sites in Cyprus. The newspaper is not affiliated with any political parties and has always striven to maintain its independence. Over the past 70-plus years, the Cyprus Mail, with a small dedicated team, has covered momentous events in Cyprus’ modern history, chronicling the last gasps of British colonial rule, Cyprus’ truncated independence, the coup and Turkish invasion, and the decades of negotiations to stitch the divided island back together, plus a myriad of scandals, murders, and human interests stories that capture the island and its -people. Observers describe it as politically conservative.