Its not every day that I read the Daily Mail. Finding one abandoned on the train to London, I read through it; which was a bit like wading through a river of sneering bile. One article in particular grabbed my attention, prompting this letter to the editor.

Sir,

Your article “The shocking map of Britain that reveals true scale of sex crimes by illegal migrants”, as a result of “the most comprehensive study of such incidents ever compiled, combing the records of crown and magistrates courts around the UK to document the vast number of asylum seekers…who have committed sexual offences over the last three years” managed to find 59 cases. 

Your reporters must be aware that in that three years 285,523 people claimed asylum in the UK. So, if 59 of those committed sexual offences, 285,464 did not. Which of these two numbers looks “vast” to you? I suppose a more accurate headline reading “Only 1 in every 4,758 asylum seekers committed a sexual offence in the last three years” would not have suited your purposes.

Just to underline this point, during the same three years there were a total of 592,882 recorded sexual offences. If, as you say, 59 of these were committed by asylum seekers, then 592,823 were not. If 59 is “vast”, what word would you use for 592,823?

Indeed, if you were to give coverage to all these offences, most of them carried out by born and bred Brits, to match the two and a bit page spread you gave to the 59, you would have needed a newspaper roughly 20,000 pages long to get them all in. I don’t suppose that would have conveyed the message you wanted either.

Is it too much to expect that you stop distorting the facts on this most emotive of issues?