THERE HAVE BEEN 40 murders carried out in Ireland by criminals out on bail, new figures from the Central Statistics Office reveal.

The Irish Daily Mail reports today that these murders all took place during the past five years.

The figures also show that the criminals on bail also made 162 death threats and that 8,033 non-aggravated and 233 aggravated burglaries were committed by people out on bail between the start of 2006 and the end of 2010.

There were also 97 rapes and sexual offences committed by people freed by the courts during the same five years.

Victim support group Advic has called for an immediate reform of the bail system, calling the figures “shocking”.

The mother of one young man who was murdered by a man out on bail told the Daily Mail that this is an issue “that is very disturbing”.

Annie Mulvaney’s son Brian was beaten to death in 2000 by Brian Willoughby, who was on bail for three assaults at the time.

“Forty murders in five years by people on bail, this is not acceptable,” said Ms Mulvaney.

She added that under the programme for government, the Minister for Justice said that he wants to reform the bail laws, and she hoped that this “will be acted upon”.

Fianna Fáil justice spokesman, Dara Calleary, told the paper “that number of murders by people on bail is wrong, it’s unacceptable”.

Read the full article by Ali Bracken in today’s Irish Daily Mail