KNIFE CRIME TOLL FOUR SHOCKING DEATHS, 15 MONTHS
AND NO SOLUTION IN SIGHT
A Gold Coast lawyer says the depths of society’s knife crime problem is best explained in one sentence: Of the seven murder cases he is working on, five of them allegedly involved a blade.
The problem has become so prevalent that magistrates are regularly lecturing offenders about the perils of carrying knives and lawyers are openly scolding their clients in court.
Four people have died from knife stabbings on the Gold Coast in the past 15 months – including Parkwood teen Jack Beasley in Surfers Paradise in December 2019 – and countless others have been wounded in separate incidents. The fatal cases are still before the courts.
Legal professionals said they had noticed a steep increase in the number of the knife-related cases. However, those using the weapons in scuffles and attacks came from different facets of society – and those on the frontline cannot agree on why.
“It’s not just kids getting around with knives,” said Dave Garratt, of Howden Saggers Lawyers.
“And it’s not just kids from lower socio-economic upbringings. People from all walks of life – including adult professionals – have been caught with a knife in their possession with no reasonable excuse.
“It’s alarming and concerning just how many people have a knife going around their day-to-day business. People are carrying around knives in handbags and cars and things like that.”
Carrying a knife in a public place without a reasonable excuse is a criminal offence and can lead to a maximum of one year in prison.
Reasonable excuses include for fishing, work purposes, or eating.
Carrying a knife for selfdefence is not a reasonable excuse.
The problem is not just confined to the Gold Coast. The UK experienced a 77 per cent increase in homicides committed with knives by under-18s between 2016 and 2018, and a 93 per cent jump in the number of under-16s admitted to hospital due to knife attacks from 2012 to 2018.
The 285 knife-related deaths recorded in the year ending March 2018 was the highest since the Home Office Homicide Index began more than 70 years ago.
In July 2019, US President Donald Trump called London Mayor Sadiq Khan a “national disgrace” after two teenagers were stabbed within 10 minutes of each other.
Earlier, he told a National Rifle Association convention: “That’s right, they don’t have guns. They have knives. Knives, knives, knives.”
In truth, the number of stabbings in America is comparable to the UK, with 0.49 knife-inflicted deaths for every 100,000 people in 2017. The UK figure was 0.48.
In Queensland, the use of knives in homicides, manslaughter, assault and domestic violence incidents rose 40 per cent in five years from 17,308 in the 2014-15 financial year to 24,687.
Academics in Europe blamed toxic environments for children, created by austerity; children and young people
People from all walks of life – including adult professionals – have been caught with a knife in their possession with no reasonable excuse. . Lawyer Dave Garratt
afraid of becoming victims; that children and young people don’t trust the authorities to protect them; and also gangs, drill music – a style that has dark, violent and nihilistic lyrics – and social media.
They felt more resources needed to be put into helping children and young teens, and not necessarily giving police a bigger stick.
Gold Coast’s Potts Lawyers director, Bill Potts, said young people were brought up on video games and movies featuring “cartoon violence” and “glorified” violent acts.
“We have to realise that knives can kill and harm,” he said. “These are not weapons of self-defence.”
One lawyer told the Bulletin a knife was allegedly used in five of the seven murder cases he is working on.
Another Gold Coast lawyer, Michael Gatenby, said he had noticed an increase in the number of people charged with carrying knives in the past 12 months.
“It’s not just the young males who are being caught up, (it’s) women also,” the director of Gatenby Criminal Lawyers said. “I tend to think it is part of the culture and they are trying replicate that Amer