Britain now a ‘Wild West’ with child woundings at 69,000

A senior police officer has said that Britain has become a ‘‘Wild West’’, with violence rising steeply and children as young as nine carrying knives.

Jackie Sebire, the National Police Chiefs’ Council spokeswoman for serious violent crime, said that in the year to June there were 69,000 child woundings – a stabbing or other violent incident resulting in a severe injury to a child aged between 10 and 15. This was an increase of 4000 on the year before.

Sebire described a ‘‘constant torrent’’ of murders and knife attacks and said that young perpetrators were showing ‘‘disregard’’ for the consequences of their actions. She said that levels of violence were worse than anything that she had experienced during her 26-year career.

Sebire, assistant chief constable of Bedfordshire police, told colleagues in central London yesterday: ‘‘This feels completely different. I’ve worked in some really challenging London boroughs. This is different, this level of violence, this constant torrent of every single day there is another stabbing, that we can’t seem to get ahead of.’’

The figures, from the national crime survey, showed that 29,000 children were victims of a robbery. Homicide is up by 14 per cent and knife possession increased by 21 per cent.

In the past five weeks Bedfordshire has dealt with three murders and five attempted murders, all related to drugs. The county lines phenomenon, in which urban gangs move Class A drugs and cash to provincial towns, had moved into the county’s picturesque villages such as Harrold.

Sebire said that the situation had become more serious in the past 12 months because the perpetrators of knife crime were younger than ever.

‘‘I am not surprised when they’re 12. We’ve seen nine and 10-year-olds, that’s the thing that’s changed. It is happening because their brothers are doing it, their friends at school are doing it.’’

Sebire said that violent clashes were occurring in public spaces in broad daylight.

The ‘‘disregard to some of the consequences or that they might get found out, that’s what feels different to me’’, she said. ‘‘We’ve always had violence, we’ve always had people shoot and stab each other. But the level of increase and just how sustained it is, . . . it’s just constant. I worry that if we can’t get this right with [agency] partners, and as a society and a community, I do worry that this will continue.’’

Sebire, speaking at a joint conference hosted by the council and the Association of Police and Crime Commissioners, cited a violent clash between teenagers carrying machetes at a shopping centre in Luton in January.

‘‘This isn’t a pre-arranged fight, they just bumped into each other. There’s

‘‘We’ve always had violence, we’ve always had people shoot and stab each other. But the level of increase and just how sustained it is, . . . it’s just constant.’’

Jackie Sebire, National Police Chiefs’ Council spokeswoman

people pushing buggies and toddlers just wandering around.’’

She showed a video of a youth shooting at a car in a quiet neighbourhood in an incident, still under investigation, that was ‘‘even more like the Wild West’’.

She added: ‘‘This is an afternoon in the school holidays and this could be any of the streets in any of our forces.’’

Sebire said that youths needed to be given alternative options to drug dealing, which they were choosing because it was lucrative. When a gang member in Bedford was murdered two hours after publishing a rap video online, his counterparts in the video continued drug dealing.

‘‘We talk about teachable moments. If it is not a teachable moment when your best friend is stabbed to death next to you, I don’t know what is.

‘‘We have a responsibility to make sure we’re there for their siblings, the members of the communities yet to be drawn into that lifestyle.’’

Mike Barton, chief constable of Durham and the national spokesman on serious organised crime, told the conference: ‘‘This isn’t going to go away. It feels like a crisis.’’

Dave Thompson, chief constable of the West Midlands, said that some young people were leading ‘‘incredibly streetbased lives that are incredibly violent’’.

He questioned how intervention was to be provided without facilities and resources. Only two youth centres were left in Birmingham.– The Times