Tough justice – for 1 in 1,858 knife thugs!
THE SNP was accused of being ‘toothless’ on violent crime yesterday as it was revealed only one knife thug since 2016 had been given the maximum sentence for carrying a weapon.
Victims claimed they had been let down by ministers and demanded harsher penalties.
In 2016, the Scottish Government introduced a maximum sentence of five years for carrying a blade.
But figures from Justice Secretary Humza Yousaf in response to a Scottish Tory parliamentary question revealed that only one offender was given this punishment despite 1,858 convictions in the past two years.
The figures do not include cases in which a knife was used in a robbery, assault or death.
John Muir has been campaigning against knife crime since his son Damian, 34, was stabbed to death in Greenock, Renfrewshire, in 2007, by Barry Gavin – who was on bail after being charged with three assaults.
Yesterday, Mr Muir said: ‘Keeping people out of jail isn’t going to do any good, the public want to know they are safe. The Scottish Government has let me down and they have let down all the other families who have lost someone to knife crime.
‘We all want to see people carrying weapons put in jail for the maximum time. It has been ten years since our Damian was killed but we are still mourning, we still feel sore about it and we’re still angry.’
Scottish Tory justice spokesman Liam Kerr said: ‘For only one criminal to have received the maximum sentence shows just how toothless the sentence guideline is.
‘The SNP talks a good game on knife crime but it is clearly nothing more than hot air.’
A Scottish Government spokesman said: ‘Sentencing remains a matter for the court, where they have all the facts and circumstances.
‘The average length of custodial sentences for knife possession has increased by 85 per cent since 2007-08.’
‘We are still mourning’