News

Concern as figures reveal one bottle confiscated every houir

Records obtained by The Irish News lay bare the sheer scale of underage drinking taking place across the north
Records obtained by The Irish News lay bare the sheer scale of underage drinking taking place across the north Records obtained by The Irish News lay bare the sheer scale of underage drinking taking place across the north

POLICE are confiscating alcohol from children at a rate of more than one bottle or can every single hour.

Records obtained by The Irish News lay bare the sheer scale of underage drinking taking place across the north.

Officers have seized alcohol from minors more than 7,000 times in the past four years - with over 34,000 bottles and cans confiscated.

In one alarming case a 10-year-old boy in west Belfast had 30 bottles of cider confiscated by police.

Parts of south and west Belfast as well as counties Down and Tyrone have emerged as some of Northern Ireland's main hotspots for underage drinking.

Overall more than 16,000 bottles and cans of beer, 7,400 ciders, over 5,400 alcopops and 1,700 bottles of wine have been seized from minors since 2011.

Concerns about underage drinking have been heightened after several high-pro-file incidents last year where young people needed hospital treatment after consuming alcohol.

In February over 100 young people including many aged under 16 were treated for the effects of alcohol and drugs outside Belfast's Odyssey Arena during a DJ Hardwell performance.

Police also warned that someone could have died when dozens of young people gathered at a golf course in Strabane, Co Tyrone, for an outdoor St Patrick's Day party organised on social media.

DUP health minister Jim Wells last month announced plans to introduce a minimum price per unit of alcohol to tackle the "staggering" harm caused by excessive consumption.

Suzanne Costello, chief executive of Alcohol Action Ireland, expressed alarm over the figures.

"The ongoing high levels of alcohol confiscated from children across Northern Ireland is a cause for great concern and a stark reflection of our attitudes to and problems with alcohol throughout society," she said.

"Alcohol use continues to move further into childhood and, worryingly, there is a consistent trend for drunkenness among young Irish people, a trend that sets them apart from the majority of their European counterparts.

"We need to seriously examine why children as young as 10 years old want to drink alcohol."

Among those who had alcohol confiscated were three 10-year-olds, two children aged 11 and five 12-year-olds.

They included a 10-year-old boy in Holywood, Co Down, and another child aged 10 in Dungannon town centre, Co Tyrone.

Police have confiscated a total of 34,652 alcohol items from children and teenagers under 18 between 2011 and October 2014.

It is the equivalent of police confiscating more than one item of alcohol from children every 60 minutes.

Four-fifths of the alcohol was seized from boys, according to details uncovered through a freedom of information request.

West Belfast had the largest amount of alcohol confiscated with over 5,300 bottles and cans seized.

On average police seized 11 items every time they were forced to confiscate alcohol from children in west Belfast.

The upper Grosvenor Road area also emerged as the north's biggest underage drinking hotspot with 1,855 items confiscated by police.

It is understood the confiscation hotspots in these inner city areas are due to high numbers of young people congregating and popular events and concerts being held in these areas during the year.

The Down policing area, meanwhile, had the most confiscations with almost 950 recorded and over 2,500 bottles and cans seized.

Overall, both the number of confiscations and amount of alcohol seized has fallen year-on-year.

There were more then 2,400 confiscations in 2011 compared to just over 1,500 in 2013.

Earlier this year The Irish News revealed incidents specifically recorded by police as underage drinking have increased by more than a fifth in a year.

Police recorded more than 350 incidents in the last two years where children aged under 18 were found drinking, possessing or purchasing alcohol.

In one case a five-year-old girl was found consuming alcohol by officers in a policing district in Co Down.

Despite the large number of alcohol confiscations from minors, police in some areas including south and west Belfast recorded relatively few instances of underage drinking.

The PSNI said these under-age drinking detection figures only related to where "action within the criminal justice system has been initiated", such as referral to social services, youth officers or other initiatives or brought to court.