Daily Mirror (Northern Ireland)
HIDDEN PERILS blades victory
Arms company stops selling 15in knife cops keep finding on thugs
items not as prolific as the knife you are talking about.”
The Mirror campaign has five key demands: more police with greater powers; reverse the cuts to youth services; boost awareness of knife crime in schools; tackle the problems behind the epidemic; and appoint a dedicated knife crime tsar.
The knives victory comes after a 14-year-old boy was caught with five Anglo Arms blades in Highbury, North London, on a Sunday in January.
A Met Police spokesman said: “Stop and search works. 14-year-old male detained by two of my officers. How many lives saved?”
He was spared jail but could have got up to four years behind bars.
Independent policing researcher Gavin Hales, former deputy director of the Police Federation, said: “Late last year it became increasingly obvious that the same two types of knife, both sold under the Anglo Arms brand, were cropping up repeatedly on police social media accounts having been seized from members of the public, often during stop and search activity.
“Most seem to relate to London, but they are also turning up elsewhere, including in the West Midlands.”
He added: “Exactly why they appear to be so popular among criminals isn’t clear, but their large size, their fearsome appearance and
their low price are likely to be significant.
“Some questions that follow include whether retailers should be doing more to confirm why people are buying these knives - can they prove they have a good reason to own them? “Also, whether it would be prudent for retailers to voluntarily raise age limits for sales of these and similar knives to well above the legal minimum of 18.”
Sarah Jones, chair of the All-party Parliamentary Group on Knife Crime said: “The Government first promised to crack down on the online sale of knives almost a year ago. But their Offensive Weapons Bill has been delayed due to the PM’S Brexit chaos and ministers won’t say when it will be brought back to the Commons.”