Children treated for stab wounds up 86%

573 under-18s were taken to A&E in just one year

THE number of children being admitted to hospital with stab wounds has almost doubled in four years, alarming figures revealed yesterday.

Some 573 under-18s were taken to A&E with potentially life-threatening knife injuries last year – more than one a day. This was up 86 per cent from 308 in 2014-15.

Around 50 youngsters who received treatment for ‘assault by sharp object’ were aged ten to 14, while four had not yet turned nine. Some would have lost their lives as a result of their wounds.

One victim was eight-year-old Mylee Billingham, who was stabbed to death by her father William Billingham at his home in Walsall in January.

Latest figures from NHS Digital show that overall the number of knife-related hospital admissions in England increased from 4,351 in 2016-17 to 4,986 last year – a rise of 15 per cent. Admissions were up 40 per cent since 2014-5.

Some children’s wounds may have been the result of accidents. But MPs, police chiefs and campaigners have warned a significant amount of bloodshed is to blame on ‘ county lines’ drugs gangs. Based in big cities, ringleaders use vulnerable children as ‘couriers’ to flood smaller towns with heroin and crack cocaine.

Members may deploy extreme violence – including knifings and amputations – to maintain, or challenge, authority over the trade in especially lucrative regions.

In April the Home Office’s Seri- ous Violence Strategy outlined how the burgeoning drugs market had led to turf wars on the streets.

Liberal Democrat MP Norman Lamb, who obtained the statistics, warned the problem could be even worse this year.

He said: ‘These figures confirm that the country is facing a disturbing surge in serious violent crime. There is no doubt that this crisis is being made worse by county lines drugs rings.

‘However, the Conservative Government is doing nowhere near enough to tackle the problem.

‘There is a real danger thousands more will suffer severe injury or have their lives needlessly cut short.’

Mr Lamb blamed cuts to public health and crime prevention budgets and called for more investment in anti-violence initiatives. He urged ministers to treat the problem as a public health crisis, rather than simply criminalising youngsters.

The Mail has told how drugs gangs are grooming tens of thousands of children as young as 12 into becoming drug mules – ensnaring them in a web of extreme brutality and intimidation.

More than 1,500 county line gangs are believed to operate in Britain, making an estimated £1.8billion annual profit between them.

It came as the grieving mother of a teenager fatally stabbed on a night out hit out at those who ‘try and tie the hands of the police’ in their ability to fight knife crime.

Sharon Kendall said campaigners resisting an increase in use of stopand-search powers should ‘look at all the murdered teenagers’ faces’.

Her son Jason Isaacs, 18, was attacked in Northolt, west London, on November 18 last year and died in hospital three days later.

Home Office figures show police carried out 282,248 stop and searches last year – down from 1.4million a decade earlier.

WILD WEST BRITAIN