Fearful parents make calls to helpline
CRIMESTOPPERS has responded to messages from panicked parents after the shocking murder of 14-year-old Justin McLaughlin.
The charity said more than 6000 young Scots visited a page dedicated to its weapon possession campaign in the first week of its launch in September.
but mums and dads have been reminded that violent crime is reducing year on year.
Lyndsay McDade, national youth coordinator at Crimestoppers’ youth service Fearlesss, said: “young people want to live safe lives.
“They don’t want to see their families or friends get hurt.
“They want their communities to be safe and happy places but sometimes things happen and quickly it all becomes out of control. Violent crime and weapon possession has reduced considerably in Scotland over the past decade but, as a mum, I know that can be of absolutely no comfort to the family of 14-year-old Justin McLaughlin, who was murdered in Glasgow on Saturday.
“At the end of September, we launched our youth violence and weapon possession campaign.
“We spoke with Lynn burns, whose son Sam was murdered in 2013 and produced a podcast which we shared on Snapchat so that young people all over Scotland could hear at first hand the consequences of violence.
“In the first week alone, over 6000 young people in Scotland visited our landing page to find out more and we received multiple, actionable reports that we were able to pass on to police 100 per cent anonymously.”
Fearless.org allows young people to speak up with information about crime 100 per cent anonymously.