stab victim remembered in KNIFE ART
statue made up of 100,000 knives taken off streets
A BURTON murder victim who died after being stabbed in the chest has been remembered by a sombre sculpture containing 100,000 knives taken off the streets during police amnesties.
Connor Upton, 21, was stabbed while on a night out in the town in 2010 after getting into a row with another man outside a club. The father-of-two died shortly afterwards.
His name has been included in a thought-provoking sculpture to raise awareness of the dangers of carrying a knife. The structure, called the Angel of Knives, was created by artist Alfie Bradley and is made entirely of knives collected by police forces, with 1,800 coming from Staffordshire.
Connor’s name was inscribed into one of the knives included in the angel’s wing as a memorial when his mother, Yvonne, was invited to see the statue.
She said: “We were invited to go down to see it the year before last. They inscribed his name into one of the wings, with lots of other victims.
“I think it is a positive thing that they have made this. I know there are people who like it and others who don’t but what it’s doing is getting people talking.
“They are talking about the statue and about knife crime as a whole and that is what we need. The more it is spoken about, the more likely it is that someone will think twice about carrying a knife, which is all we want.
“I’m glad it’s gone to Liverpool and I hope it can do a tour around the whole country – but I know it might not be that simple.”
Yvonne has been a campaigner against knife violence since Connor was stabbed outside Merlin’s bar in Station Street. Connor, who used to box with Commonwealth champion Frazer Clarke, was attacked after the pair clashed when his killer, George Lawrence, flicked a cigarette at his face.
Lawrence, now 54, from Burton, was given a life sentence and is serving at least 21 years behind bars.
The 27ft-high statue is on show outside the Anglican Cathedral in Liverpool over Christmas, after previously being housed at the British Ironworks Centre, in Shropshire.
It will be on display in Liverpool until January 31.
It is made up of 100,000 knives handed in at 43 police stations across the country and took more than a year to build.
Between September 2016 and 2017, the number of offences in the UK involving a knife rose by 21 per cent to 37,443, according to the Office for National Statistics.
There were 238 people killed in stabbings in the same period.