North East anti-knife crime campaigner calls for urgent action on weapons
It's a week on since the stabbing in a Sheffield school
A North East anti-knife crime campaigner is calling on the government to take urgent action on weapons before any more lives are lost.
It is a week on since the stabbing in a Sheffield school where 15 year old Harvey Willgoose died.
Alison Madgin from Wallsend is behind the charity Samantha's Legacy, in memory of her daughter, who was stabbed to death on a night out and she said: "When I heard about the stabbing at the school in Sheffield, it actually broke me. It takes you back to your own moment but I felt it so much for that family. It's absolutely horrific. At a school as well. A school setting where children are supposed to be safe and staff are supposed to be safe.
"I do believe knife crime is on the increase. I mean you don't need to be intelligent to see that. Every single day in the media we're hearing about knife crime again and again. People surviving, attacks or people being killed by knife attacks.
"I do believe that when there has been a stabbing that the community the majority are really, really shocked, scared and emotions are running high. They fear for their own children.
"I just want the communities to work together with everybody else you know the police, the violence reduction unit, your MPs, and just everybody needs to be working together because as you can clearly see, it's not getting any better.
"I think you need a big shock in giving out these sentences because we need a deterrent because it looks like all the perpetrators are in control of it all. They don't seem to be bothered what can happen to them so we need a deterrent and we need to work close together to help resolve it.
"We lost Samantha 17 years ago now and since then, myself and Carly have been fighting to be heard, to stop the increase, to stop all the violence around knife crime and obviously 17 years later we're still doing it, so what's going on?
"We do a lot of talks in schools and one of the things we say to them is 'if you come with a knife, you can be sentenced to six months and four years' and the children's response is that 'well, my friend got caught with a knife the other night and nothing happened to him.'
"You hear about four or five kids seeing and they know people that are carrying, they know they've been stopped by the police and nothing's happened to them. We need to start implementing these sentences."
Back in September, the Government launched a new coalition to tackle knife crime and half knife crime within 10 years.
Prime Minister Keir Starmer said: "As Director of Public Prosecutions, I saw first-hand the devastating impact that knife crime has on young people and their families. This is a national crisis that we will tackle head on.
"We will take this moment to come together as a country – politicians, families of victims, young people themselves, community leaders and tech companies - to halve knife crime and take back our streets."
Home Secretary Yvette Cooper said: "We will not sit back while precious lives are being lost and young people’s futures destroyed. That is why we are making it a mission for the country to halve knife crime in a decade.
"Getting weapons off our streets and making sure there are tough and clear consequences for violence are vital. And we also need to prevent young people heading down this path - that means offering young people more hope, more opportunities.
"This coalition is crucial - bringing together those who have fought so passionately for change and who know how devastating knife crime can be and why we need action now."
Commander Stephen Clayman, National Police Chiefs’ Council lead for knife crime, said: "Knife crime continues to blight the lives of individuals, families and whole communities and despite so much brilliant work ongoing around the country, policing cannot solve this problem alone. Knives are far too easily accessible, with online sellers being a key focus of our work over the last year. I look forward to leading the review into online supply and continuing to work in close partnership with government, retailers and the third sector to find ways we can bring meaningful, long-term change that will make our streets safer for everyone."