COPS QUIZ KIDS AGED 4 ARMED WITH KNIVES

Call for action over shock rise in youngsters carrying blades

CHILDREN aged four have been held over knife crimes as the shocking number of kids carrying blades soars.

A Mirror investigation found a 23% rise in youngsters with the weapons in just one year.

Police Federation chairman Steve White said: “It’s truly shocking.

“We have to intervene before it is too late.”

RELATIVES of stabbing victims last night demanded action to stop the menace of youth knife crime sweeping through Britain.

A Mirror investigation found the number of children carrying blades soared by 23% between 2015 and 2016.

And this year a four-year-old was quizzed as a suspect in a knife crime.

Police chiefs claim cuts in the number of officers and youth services are among the reasons for the shocking rise.

Caroline Shearer, whose 17-year-old son Jay Whiston was stabbed to death at Clacton, Essex, in 2012, branded knife crime an “epidemic”.

The 52-year-old founder of charity Only Cowards Carry said: “This is a national problem which is reaching the point of a plague of weaponry used on our streets.” It came as new figures showed crime in England and Wales has risen by 10% and violent crime by 20%.

But our investigation of police forces across the UK revealed 12 children are arrested every day for carrying knives. In the first three months of this year alone almost 1,600 were confronted by officers over a blade issue. According to our Freedom of Infor- mation survey, in 2015, there were more than 3,425 children under 18 arrested or questioned by police for knife offences. In 2016 it leapt to 4,219. The four-year-old quizzed this year was in Manchester. Another suspect the same age was questioned in 2016 by the same force. A boy of five was also held there in relation to knife crime. A six-year-old was quizzed in Hull and an eight-year-old in Cumbria. Michelle McPhillips, whose son Jonathan was killed by teenage knife attackers in Islington, North London, four months ago, joined the call for action. She said: “Three people a day are dying from knife crime. That’s 21 people a week. Action needs to be taken and we need to stop these knives coming in.

“We need to be putting money into educating our youths now.”

Former EastEnders star Brooke Kinsella has waged war on knife crime since brother Ben, 16, was stabbed to death nine years ago in North London.

She said: “It is so upsetting to see it on the increase again. Too many young people’s lives are ruined by this hideous crime and, though it sounds like a

broken record, we need to start addressing and fixing the root causes of it. What these figures don’t show is the pain, suffering and heartbreak knife crime leaves behind.”

Police Federation chairman Steve White said it is largely down to a dramatic fall in police numbers, with 21,500 fewer than five years ago.

And he warned: “Even if we started reversing that trend now it would not see an effect for at least three years.

“There is no doubt in my mind the rise in knife crime is linked with the decrease in neighbourhood policing. It’s shocking. We have to intervene before it is too late. Knives are more deadly than guns in this country.”

The Ben Kinsella Trust’s Patrick Green added: “In 2014 knife crime was falling and we have to look at why it’s suddenly going up again.

“Austerity cuts have had an effect. It’s reduced youth services and put pressure on police. Politicians have taken their eye off the ball in terms of solving the problems of knife crime. We seem to be rocketing back to where we were in 2012 when too many young people were killed by knives.” A cross-party group of politicians have created the Youth Violence Commission in a bid to tackle the problem. Labour MP Vicky Foxcroft, who set it up, said: “We have to do something soon or I fear it is just going to get worse. We want to look into the root causes of this, because kids are not born with a knife in their hands.”