TWO violent or sex criminals were charged with murder, rape or another further serious offence while under supervision in Merseyside last year, it has been revealed.

No details were released about the cases – two of 48 across England and Wales – and both Merseyside Probation Trust and Merseyside Police declined to comment.

However, neither charge has yet led to a conviction and neither offender was classed as “level three” – those under the most rigorous monitoring, after being assessed as posing the greatest risk of harm to the public.

Meanwhile, 83 registered sex and violent offenders in Merseyside were returned to prison for breaching the terms of their release licences, with eight in Cheshire.

And the annual figures revealed that 2,266 criminals were being supervised under so-called “multi-agency public protection arrangements” (Mappas) across the two areas – of which 1,484 were sex offenders.

A total of 70 were “level three” cases – the so-called “critical few” – of which 55 were in Merseyside and the remaining 15 in Cheshire.

But a row broke out over the scale of serious re-offending, after the Ministry of Justice admitted this year's figures excluded those charged with “wounding with intent to cause GBH”.

Across England, in 2008-09, the change helped cut the number charged with a serious offence – carrying a jail term of at least 14 years – from 79 to 48.

Maria Eagle, the justice minister and MP for Garston, said the risk of serious re-offending could never be eliminated entirely, but insisted that it had remained constant for the past four years, at around 0.5%.