Home secretary announces the end of limitations on use of section 60 powers where serious violence anticipated
The government is lifting restrictions placed on police stop and search powers in areas where they anticipate violent crime, the home secretary has announced.
In a letter to police forces on Monday, Priti Patel outlined the easing of conditions on the use of the tactics under section 60 of the criminal justice and public order act.
Continue reading...Most of young people were victims of knife crime and were killed by other teenagers
London has recorded its highest ever level of teenage homicides in a single year after two boys were killed on Thursday.
A 15-year-old was stabbed to death in a park in Croydon on Thursday night, while a 16-year-old died after being stabbed in Hillingdon.
Continue reading...Japanese media report man in Batman villain costume stabbed people and started a fire
A man dressed in Batman’s Joker costume has been arrested for attempted murder after a knife and fire attack on a train in Tokyo, according to Japanese media, with at least 17 people reportedly injured and one in a serious condition after being stabbed.
Witnesses told national broadcaster NHK of the bloody attack which happened on Sunday, when the Japanese capital was full of Halloween revellers, many in costume.
Continue reading...Ambulance service unable to save teenager after attack in Newham
A 15-year-old boy has died after being stabbed in east London and a murder inquiry has been launched, the Metropolitan police has said.
Officers were called just before 7pm on Friday following reports of a stabbing in Woodman Street, near to the Royal Docks in Newham. Police and members of the London ambulance service (LAS) attended and found the teenager suffering injuries. Despite the efforts of the emergency services he was pronounced dead at the scene.
Continue reading...Police say lone suspect still on loose after attacks in which one man died and seven people were injured
West Midlands police have released CCTV of a man they are seeking after a series of stabbings in Birmingham city centre left one man dead and seven people injured, two seriously.
The attacker responsible for the stabbings – which happened in four different areas over a two-hour period in the early hours of Sunday morning – was still at large, police confirmed.
Continue reading...A 33-year-old man has been arrested for a knife attack in the centre of Romans-sur-Isère
A man killed two people and injured at least five others – one of them critically – during an attack in a town in south-east France.
The man, 33, was said to have slit the throat of one of his victims in front of the man’s wife and son, in the centre of Romans-sur-Isère in the Drôme, 20km north of the town of Valence.
Continue reading...On 21 February 2019, two young men ran into the Marcus Lipton youth centre in south London on a busy Thursday and stabbed 23-year-old Glendon Spence to death. The tragedy sent shockwaves across my community in Loughborough Junction.
Faced with intergenerational cycles of neglect and disadvantage, young people have for decades considered the youth centre as a second home. Glendon’s murder was a sharp reminder that, in modern Britain, street violence can pierce even the most resilient of spaces; another loved soul frozen in time.
Continue reading...Call for action after police figures show 46% of people charged were reoffenders
Almost half of people charged with knife killings in London over the past three years had previously committed an offence involving a blade, Metropolitan police figures suggest.
The Met charged 379 people with knife crime homicides between the start of November 2016 and the end of October last year. Of those charged, 173, or 46%, had previously committed a knife offence, according to the Met data.
Continue reading...Ewan Ireland, 17, had been released under investigation over an affray offence when he attacked Peter Duncan
The case of a teenager jailed for life after stabbing a lawyer to death has raised fresh alarm about the practice of releasing violent suspects without strict bail conditions.
Ewan Ireland was 17 when he attacked Peter Duncan in August. The sentencing judge said on Tuesday that it was the 52-year-old’s bad luck to accidentally bump into Ireland while trying to get home after work in Newcastle city centre.
Continue reading...A 15-year-old and an 18-year-old stabbed to death in attacks in Stratford and Camberwell
Two teenagers have been fatally stabbed within hours of each other in London.
A 15-year-old boy was stabbed to death outside a busy shopping centre in Stratford, east London, shortly after 3pm on Thursday.
Continue reading...Police launch murder inquiry after teenager killed following altercation in Salt Park Hill
A murder inquiry has been launched after a 15-year-old boy was stabbed to death in a skatepark.
Police were called to Salt Hill Park in Slough, Berkshire, at about 6.30pm on Saturday. The teenager was pronounced dead at the scene. Thames Valley police said his family have been informed and were being helped by specially trained officers.
Continue reading...Superintendent Darius Hemmatpour said that taking 20,000 police of the streets created a void
Funding cuts to police and public services that previously helped stop people, especially the young, from offending has helped fuel the surge in violent crime, a police chief has said.
Supt Darius Hemmatpour of Scotland Yard’s violent crime task force, said stabbings and other life-threatening attacks in London spiked after 2017, and suggested that austerity was a factor.
Continue reading...The 18-year-old was found with stab wounds in Newham at about 3.30pm on Monday
An 18-year-old male has died after being stabbed in east London, police have said.
Officers found the teenager with critical injuries to the south of West Ham Park in Newham at about 3.30pm on Monday. The London ambulance service was called but he was pronounced dead about an hour later.
Continue reading...Large police cordon in place and murder inquiry launched after latest attack in north-west London
A 16-year-old boy has died after a stabbing in north-west London.
The Metropolitan police were called to Munster Square in Camden, close to Regent’s Park, at about 11.10pm on Monday. The boy was pronounced dead at the scene, with paramedics in attendance.
Continue reading...Victim, aged 49, died at the scene in Widnes, say police
A man has died after being stabbed in an attack outside a Cheshire pub.
Police were called to reports of a serious assault near the Hammer and Pincers pub in Widnes at 3.20pm on Sunday. A 49-year-old man was found with serious stab wounds and died at the scene, police said.
Continue reading...Prime minister also announced creation of 10,000 more prison places at a cost of £2.5bn
Boris Johnson has said he is determined to tackle rising levels of knife crime by announcing an extension of police stop-and-search powers.
At the same time, the prime minister announced the government would be investing £2.5bn in creating 10,000 new prison places to ensure serious violent and sexual offenders got the sentence they deserved.
Continue reading...The government’s primary responsibility is to protect its citizens from harm (Ministers accused of dereliction of duty over youth crime ‘emergency’, 31 July). It is clear that government cuts to police, youth work and education have contributed to the upsurge in knife crime. It is also clear that it is still failing to meet its responsibility at every level, from offering help with parenting skills, to providing adequate well-funded schooling, to making sure that children who are excluded from regular classes do not just wander the streets, to providing employment for all 16- to 24-year-olds who need it, to correcting the inequality that pervades British society.
Maybe it is time that parents whose children have suffered from knife attacks should bring a class action legal case against government ministers for failing to discharge its responsibilities.
Dr Richard Lawson
Churchill, Somerset
Teenager’s parents say they will take ‘legal steps’ after suspect in stabbing found not guilty
The family of a teenage boy who was fatally stabbed have spoken of their devastation and said they will “take legal steps” after a teenager was found not guilty of his murder.
A 17-year-old boy, who cannot be named, had been accused of killing his friend Yousef Makki, 17, during an argument in an affluent suburb of Cheshire.
Continue reading...Individual liability removed but duty requires police, councils and NHS to work together to tackle violence
A new legal duty on public health bodies in England to tackle serious violence, including knife crime, must be backed by cash if it is to be effective, organisations have warned.
The public health duty, requiring bodies to share data, intelligence and knowledge, will be announced by the government this week, following the conclusion of an eight-week consultation.
Continue reading...Lib Peck insists tactics are succeeding despite Londoners ‘feeling powerless’ over crime
The head of London’s newly formed violence reduction unit has said Londoners feel powerless about levels of street crime but insisted that increased use of stop and search powers had been successful.
Lib Peck, the former leader of Lambeth council who was appointed to the role in January, made the comments while on a two-day fact-finding trip to Glasgow, visiting some of the Scottish unit’s key projects and meeting senior officials.
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