WHY WON’T THEY LOCK UP THE KNIFE THUGS?
EXCLUSIVE: Judges flouting ‘two strikes and out’ rule
FOUR in ten criminals caught more than once with a knife are spared prison.
Adults caught with a knife for the second time should be locked up for at least six months under laws rolled out by the Tories in 2015.
But, of the 13,056 people convicted of a further knife offence over the past three years, 4,908 were given suspended sentences, community punishments, fines or cautions.
‘These figures give the lie to the Government’s tough talk on knife crime,’ said John Woodcock, an independent MP who sits on the Commons home affairs committee. ‘It seems that “two strikes and you’re out” is anything but.
‘Communities being blighted by the huge rise in stabbings are in desperate need of fresh thinking and more police resources to end this nightmare. This presents a bad image for Britain. It risks damaging our reputation.’
As police chiefs warned of a knife crime epidemic in major cities:
A mother found her 16-year-old son stabbed to death in Tulse Hill, south London;
It was the capital’s fifth knife death in six days and 119th killing this year;
Police forces logged a record 39,332 knife
Nearly 5,000 repeat offenders avoided jail despite a ‘two strikes and you’re out’ rule. The shocking figures were revealed following the third fatal stabbing of a London teenager inside a week.
A mother cried ‘God, save my boy’ after finding him bleeding to death in the latest appalling example of London’s violent crime crisis.
She had come in her car to collect the 16-year-old but instead found he had been stabbed multiple times.
he is thought to have been set on by a knife gang in the capital’s fifth killing in just six days – and 119th this year.
Named locally as John, the victim is said to have been part of a drill music group, the Lower tulse hill gang, performing under the pseudonym JaySav.
Drill is a controversial and violent British brand of rap music.
rivalry between local groups, as well as the violent content of the lyrics, has been blamed for a series of deaths.
online fans wrote messages of commemoration for JaySav, with some saying the south London ‘crew’ in question had lost up to five members to gang violence.
monday’s incident saw police being called to reports of a shooting at 10.53pm on tulse hill. Paramedics tried to save the teenager, but he was pronounced dead an hour later.
officers said there was no evidence that a gun had been fired.
one witness said: ‘A car drove on to the estate and then the boy was left on the floor. I was absolutely terrified – his stomach had been slit open.
‘the boy’s mum came driving down in an Audi and sounded the horn again and again. She was screaming “Save him, save him. God, save my boy”.’
A friend of the victim said: ‘Growing up around here, you become used to it. You can tell the difference between a gunshot and a firework’, he said. ‘I heard a person say “We got him, we got him”.’
Another associate said: ‘John was in a gang, he had enemies. they did things – you know like gang stuff. Whoever did this, they were not targeting John – they rolled up on his gang.
‘John must have been on his own and that’s why they targeted him. he was stabbed five times, in the heart and in the stomach.’ the youngster is the third London teenager to be fatally stabbed in just six days.
At least one violent drill music video, which has been viewed hundreds of thousands of times online, was filmed just yards from the spot of the stabbing.
In it, balaclava-clad rappers brag about ‘cheffing’ their enemies – a graphic term for butchering foes with a blade. A large kitchen knife was recovered from bushes near the crime scene yesterday. It is not thought to have been used in the killing.
Another witness, elena erik, 42, said: ‘I looked out from the balcony and I saw the mum. She was crying “my son, my son” as he was lying on the floor. It’s so sad.’
A local resident who knew the victim’s mother said she had been to the flats before to pick up her son because she did not like him hanging around there.
Detective Chief Inspector richard Vandenbergh of the met said: ‘I am appealing to anyone who has information that could assist this investigation to come forward and speak to police.
‘We believe the victim was attacked by a number of suspects and the altercation would have undoubtedly drawn the attention of those in the vicinity.’
Scotland Yard announced it was stepping up patrols in the wider area.
Stabbing victims in recent days include malcolm mide-madariola, 17; Jai Sewell, 15; and rocky Djelal, 38.
So far in London this year there have been 119 violent deaths, including two cases that are being treated by Scotland Yard as self-defence.