The Mirror was happy with its headline: "120 children mugged each day".It had calculated a daily average from figures that 23,698 young peopleaged 11 to 16 were robbed over 12 months during 2005/06.
Mental arithmetic fans will see this doesn't stack up. That's because,on the assumption muggers don't operate during school holidays, thepaper divided the total by 195, the number of school days in a year.
The Sun's was even bigger. It declared: "600 kids mugged each termday".
How so? Because it remembered that eight out of 10 robberies are neverreported. That entitled it to multiply the Mirror's figure by five.
The Daily Mail had a different spin.
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