Knife crime free-for-all
Offences hit a 9-year high but 561 serial criminals spared jail
KNIFE offences have hit a nine-year high following a nationwide surge in stabbings, official figures reveal.
More than 22,000 cases were dealt with by the justice system last year – of which one in five involved children.
But only a third of offenders went to jail. Sentences were so soft that even many of those with several previous knife convictions avoided being locked up. Yesterday’s figures showed 561 criminals were spared prison despite having committed at least three knife offences in the past.
Experts said the courts were being pressured by the Government to avoid short jail terms, particularly for children. The data also revealed a 17 per cent fall in the number of under-18s convicted of knife crime who went to prison last year.
The rise in offences reflects a recent surge in fatal stabbings with victims ranging from a 14year-old schoolboy to an 86-year-old grandmother.
But it is also a consequence of greater use of stop-and-search by police – leading to more individuals being caught in possession of a weapon.
According to the data from the Ministry of Justice, around 22,040 offences involving knives or offensive weapons were dealt with by the criminal justice system in the 12 months to March.
This was up by 35 per cent since the same period in 2015 and the highest since 2010 when 23,667 cases were recorded.
Labour’s Yvette Cooper, chairman of the Home Affairs heard by knife whose from Select crime. lives families Committee, It’s have shocking [on been the said: devastated committee] that ‘We’ve the Government still don’t have a grip on this violent epidemic.’
Addressing the high numbers avoiding prison, Harry Fletcher, of the Victims’ Rights Campaign, said: ‘Courts are being urged to use jail as sparingly as very going possible. clear down that for Politicians they short don’t periods have want made of people time, it as prisons are overcrowded.’ The figures show that 4,586 criminals with one or more previous knife offences were spared jail in the 12 months to March – or 40 per cent. Some 1,456 offenders with two or more previous convictions avoided jail
‘Lives have been devastated’
– including 561 who had committed at least three offences.
This was despite a flagship ‘ two strikes and you’re out’ policy introduced by David Cameron in 2015, which urged judges to hand out sentences of at least six months.
The Ministry of Justice pointed out that the proportion of criminals going to prison for knife offences was at its highest level in ten years. But this was not the case for child offenders, with the number of sentences falling by 17 per cent in a year.
Justice Minister Robert Buckland insisted that the Government is ‘committed to doing everything in its power to stop knife crime and its devastating consequences on lives and communities.’