Points on kitchen knives should be filed down to stop killings, says judge

Majority of knives used by youths in stabbings are from homes – but cooks don’t need pointed ends

A JUDGE has proposed a nationwide programme to file down the points of kitchen knives as a solution to the knife crime epidemic.

Last week in his valedictory address, retiring Luton Crown Court Judge Nic Madge spoke of his concern that carrying a knife had become routine in some circles, and called on the Government to ban large pointed kitchen knives.

Stabbing deaths among teenagers and young adults have reached the highest level for eight years, with knife crime overall rising 22 per cent in 2017.

In the past two months, he said, there had been 77 knife-related incidents in Bedfordshire, including three killings. He told the assembled judges, barristers and court staff: “These offences often seem motiveless – one boy was stabbed because he had an argument a couple of years before.”

He said laws designed to reduce the availability of weapons to young would-be offenders had had “almost no effect” since the majority had taken knives from a cutlery drawer.

“A few of the blades carried by youths are so-called Rambo knives or samurai swords. They are a small minority.

“The reason these measures have little effect is that the vast majority of knives carried by youths are ordinary kitchen knives. Every kitchen contains lethal knives that are potential murder weapons. It is very easy for any youth who wants to obtain a knife to take it from the kitchen drawer in his home or in the home of one of his friends.”

The most common knife a youth will take out is eight to 10 inches long and pointed, he said, asking: “But why do we need eight-inch or 10-inch kitchen knives with points? Butchers and fishmongers do but how often, if at all, does a domestic chef use the point of an eight-inch or 10-inch knife?”

Acknowledging that any blade could cause injury, the judge pointed out “slash wounds are rarely fatal”.

“I would urge all those with any role in relation to knives – manufacturers, shops, the police, local authorities, the Government – to consider preventing the sale of long pointed knives, except in rare, defined circumstances, and replacing such knives with rounded ends,” Judge Madge said. “It might even be that the police could organise a programme whereby the owners of kitchen knives, which have been properly and lawfully bought for culinary purposes, could be taken somewhere to be modified, with the points being ground down into rounded ends.”

Office for National Statistics figures published in February revealed 215 fatal stabbings had been recorded by police in the 12 months to March 2017. New tougher sentencing guidelines for knife crime were introduced in March.