David Gardiner

Journalist

Douglas Shire has seen a drop in incidents of crime over the past three months compared to the previous quarter.

Excluding traffic and related offences, there were a total of 212 crimes reported to and attended by police from May 25 to August 24, 80 less than the 292 reported over the previous three months.
The figure represents a drop of 27 per cent in the latest quarter.

There were a total of 150 offences in the Mossman area and 73 in total in Port Douglas and Craiglie.

Assaults in Douglas Shire overall dropped from 48 in the period from February 25 to May 24, to 35 assaults in the past three months.

Unlawful use of a motor vehicle, generally meaning car theft, was down to 10 from 23.

There were 40 unlawful entry offences in the previous three-month period, which dropped to 34 this quarter.

‘Other property damage’ offences markedly decreased from 49 to 27 over the two quarters.

But there was a slight increase in ‘good order’ offences – up from 26 in the earlier three-month period to 29.

Queensland Police Service Crime Map figures show overall, reported crimes are decreasing and while Douglas police say they are encouraged, they add they are continuing to work hard with the community on prevention measures and continuing to help bring crime incidents down.

Meanwhile in other police news, two men, aged 28 and 24 were expected to appear in Brisbane Magistrates Court today over the alleged murder of Andrew Walsh, 35, whose Mossman family reported him missing in January this year.

Queensland Police confirmed the two have been charged with murder and misconduct with a corpse.

In total six men have now been charged over the alleged murder of Mr Walsh, whose remains were found in concrete at a transport depot in Coopers Plains, Brisbane in March.

Detectives have also linked the depot to the disappearance and suspected murder of a second man, Lachlan Griffiths.