One child is held every TWO HOURS for carrying a blade More than 11,000 children victims of knife crime in year Pupils as young as nine are taking knives into school DROP THE
to get a severe punishment for carrying a knife they will not stop doing it.”
Data from 28 police forces revealed 2,698 children were arrested for possessing a knife in 2015 – up 38 per cent on the 2013 figure of 1,949. However, when estimates for the missing forces are factored in, the true number of arrests could top 4,000.
The sickening statistics show little has changed since the murder of 15-year-old Sofyen Belamouadden at a Tube station in London shocked Britain in March 2010.
He was attacked in front of commuters at Victoria Station by a 20-strong mob of teenagers armed with knives, metal bars, batons and even a samurai sword.
His death followed petty feuding and increasing tensions between pupils from different schools in West London.
Then there was 19-year-old Sean McHugh, hacked to death with a swordstick by baby-faced teenagers in a Liverpool launderette in September 2013.
Five lads – two of them aged just 13 – were jailed for a combined total of 54 years.
Last year trauma surgeon Tom Konig wrote a heartfelt open letter pleading for an end to the attacks.
Mr Konig described how he performed open-heart surgery in the back of a London ambulance on a 17-year-old boy stabbed at a house party – but failed to save him.
“It’s the utter futility of it,” he wrote. “No one wins, everyone loses.”
Former world champion boxer Mark Prince set up the Kiyan Prince Foundation in 2007 with the aim of using his son’s legacy to steer young people away from
gun and knife crime through sport. Kiyan, an aspiring footballer who played for Queen Park Rangers’ youth team, was murdered in May 2006 outside the London Academy in Edgware, London, as he tried to help a friend who was being bullied.
Hannad Hasan, 16, was jailed for a minimum of 13 years for murder.
Mark, 47, said: “When Kiyan died I wanted to kill the boy who did it. I walked past him in court and I wanted to snap his neck. But today I don’t feel anger or hatred.
“I forgive him and I would love to visit him in prison and tell him that. I would treat him the same as all the other boys I’ve helped through the Kiyan Prince Foundation. That’s what my son would do.
“Small charities like mine make a real difference in educating young people about consequences of knife crime, but we have limited resources to make a wider impact.
“The Government needs to give more funding to the organisations that have a track record of making an impact.
“That way we can give even more young men the skills, understanding and mindset to stay out of trouble and make something