Alarm over 1,000 knife attacks on teenagers
TOP doctors have urged shopkeepers to stop selling deadly weapons to children as it was revealed stabbed teenagers accounted for more than 1,000 hospital admissions last year.
Nearly 5,000 admissions were from knife attacks as the number of fatalities hit the highest level since 1946, according to NHS England.
One of London’s biggest hospitals treats two stabbing victims every day, and its top trauma surgeon told how “you never forget” the sound a bereaved mother makes.
Professor Chris Moran, NHS England’s national clinical director for trauma, said: “Far too many young people are under 24 were knifed to death last year.
Shehan Hettiaratchy, major trauma director at Imperial College Healthcare NHS Trust, said thugs were targeting body areas to maim, but not kill.
He said: “We have seen a lot of people who have been stabbed in the legs. You can cut the main nerve that runs down the back of the leg and you don’t recover from that.
“You won’t be able to run properly again, walk properly again.”
The Home Office said: “A new £500,000 prosecution fund will help Trading Standards teams secure the prosecution of retailers who repeatedly sell knives to under 18s.”
CIVILIANS GUARD CRIME SCENES
CIVILIANS will be paid £10 an hour to guard crime scenes, it was revealed yesterday.
They are being employed on zero hours contracts by Norfolk Police to free up officers for other duties.
The use of “scene guards” comes just 12 months after the force axed 150 of its trained Police Community Support Officers.
Police chiefs say applicants for the new role are likely to be former police officers or ex service personnel.
The scene guards will record details of potential witnesses who come forward and will monitor everyone entering or leaving the area.
A force spokesman said they will be used to guard police cordons at low risk crime or incident scenes “which need to have a visible police presence on a 24/7 basis while investigations are completed”.
Critics claim it is policing on the cheap.