Machete crime on UK streets EVERY HOUR
Horror stats after string of fatal stabbings
MACHETES are being used in a crime every hour on average – a record high and six times more than eight years ago.
The deadly weapons featured in almost 700 offences a month as the weapon of choice for violent thugs.
It comes after a string of teenagers were fatally stabbed with the blades, including Jermaine Cools, 14, and Rishmeet Singh, 16.
Jermaine’s killer had previously been caught with three zombie and Rambo knives while one of Rishmeet’s murderers was free despite having been convicted of carrying a blade.
Patrick Green, chief executive of the Ben Kinsella Trust, which campaigns against knife crime, said: “There is no legitimate reason why anyone would need to buy a machete in the UK.
“Machetes are designed for clearing land. They are also far too easy to obtain, a few clicks online and you can have one delivered to your door the next day.
“These weapons all too frequently end up on our streets and are used to intimidate, maim, and kill. They have no place in our society and they should be banned.”
Suella Braverman is now the fifth Tory Home Secretary to promise a ban on machetes and zombie knives, named as such because their ornate blades are often seen in horror films.
Botched Tory legislation means that seven years after they first promised the changes the horrific weapons are still available to criminals.
Latest figures from police forces in England and Wales show machetes are being used in almost 700 offences every month.
But the true total is even higher as the nation’s largest force, the Metropolitan Police, failed to provide stats, saying it would take staff too long to compile. A survey of police forces found machetes were involved in 1,335 crime incidents in two months at the end of last year.
A total of 37 of the 44 police forces in England and Wales responded with machete numbers to the Freedom of Information Act survey.
Marques Walker, now 17, was jailed for life this week for murdering Jermaine Cools, 14, while on bail for carrying a zombie knife. Walker stabbed Jermaine seven times with a 3ft machete after the lad fell outside a chicken shop in West Croydon, South London, in November last year. In April last year four young men were jailed for the murder and robbery of Ryan O’Connor, 26, while walking home in Newport, South Wales.
His killers, who stole his Gucci bag as he lay in the street dying from a wound to the heart, were armed with hunting knives.
IT is far too easy to purchase a dangerous knife or machete in the UK.
A quick search of the internet shows dozens of firms selling Zombie knives, blades and other potentially lethal weapons.
A loophole stops the police confiscating knives kept at home even if they have grounds to believe they will be used in a serious crime.
The Tories are now vowing to tighten laws on sale and possession of knives... for the fifth time since 2016.
This unforgivable delay is costing lives. More than 170 youths have been fatally stabbed in the last seven years.
Their friends and families will rightly ask why ministers have taken so long to act.