With 23 knife killings in just six weeks, so far, we ask when will you stop the stabbings, Boris?
KNIFE crime on the streets of Britain was at its bloodiest ever last year – but 2020 has started off even more terrifying.
In just six weeks there have already been 23 fatalities — two more than this time last year, which ended with the highest toll on record as 149 people in London alone lost their lives.
Today, the sister of one such victim, speaking out in support of The Sun on Sunday’s Beat the Blades campaign, calls on PM Boris Johnson to crack down harder to stop the killings.
Human resources worker Tilisha Goupall, 27, whose 15-year-old brother Jermaine, an aspiring architect, was stabbed to death in South London in 2017, says: “You have to ask the question when this tide of blood will end — and the only person who can answer this is our PM.
“We thought last year’s death toll would never be topped, as it showed just how out of control the killings were. But it’s getting worse.
“Please put an end to all the heartache and stop other families suffering like ours has.
“I’ve heard stories that children as young as seven are carrying knives because they are scared. It’s about speaking to these children and showing them you can relate to them.”
STABBED IN BROAD DAYLIGHT
New statistics from the Ministry of Justice reveal a record 44,771 offences involving knives or sharp instruments in the year to last September, up seven per cent on the previous 12 months.
The numbers of convictions and cautions rose three per cent to the highest in ten years and courts handled 22,286 cases.
Only this week, police released CCTV of a man being stabbed in the arm in broad daylight in central London before thieves snatched his £115,000 Breguet Tourbillon watch.
Victims’ families are in talks with web giants such as YouTube to stop glorifying violence. Police are using knife scanners at train stations and bus terminals to check schoolkids. And surgeons are visiting schools to talk about victims’ often fatal injuries.
Last year, casualty departments dealt with a record 5,069 admissions.
Campaigner Tilisha’s world changed for ever on August 8, 2017, when her brother Jermaine was ambushed by a balaclava-clad gang as he walked home in Thornton Heath, South London.
He was stabbed eight times, with machetes and samurai swords. Three attackers were jailed for his murder.
Adam Benzahi, 21, was sentenced to a minimum of 22 years, Samuel Oliver-Rowland, 18, to at least 20 years, and Junior Simpson, 17, also known as rapper M-Trap 0, to no less than 18 years.
Saskia Haye-Elliot, 18, was sentenced for manslaughter, to 12 years and six months.
Tilisha sat through every day of the trial — and now has had to go through a whole new ordeal upon learning an M-Trap 0 video was back on YouTube after having been removed.
WHOLE NEW ORDEAL
Tilisha, who has since twice met YouTube bosses to demand action, says: “It just shows that taking down violent content is not being taken seriously.
It makes me sick to the stomach that Jermaine’s killer is still allowed a voice on YouTube.
“It was only when I started looking into the lyrics in drill music, I realised how violent the language is.
This music incites violence and fuels rivalry between gangs. Jermaine’s killers were in the CR0 gang — named after the Croydon and New Addington postcode — and had driven to Thornton Heath looking for the rival CR7 gang.
“Jermaine was not in a gang, he was an innocent victim. But M-Trap 0 had written lyrics to a song on his phone describing how he wanted to kill someone. It was used in evidence.”
Determined to do her bit to stop knife crime, Tilisha is now visiting primary schools, talking to children as young as nine.
She says: “Most youngsters think ‘What do you know about knife crime’ but when they hear my story they listen. It’s about reassuring people they don’t need to carry a knife.
I recall talking to Jermaine about gangs a few months before his death. I told him to never carry a knife.“I said if anything happened, drop everything and run.
He smiled and said to me: ‘Don’t worry, I’m not involved in gangs.’
“I’d like to request a meeting with London Mayor Sadiq Khan, and PM Boris Johnson, and invite them to contact me or my dad. Sadiq and Boris, read this now and know you are welcome to speak with us so we can work together.
'WORK TOGETHER'
“It’s so important that you reach out to us and other families affected by knife crime to get a full understanding of what’s happening.”
Stretched police forces have been scrambling for ways to combat the violence.
In Harrogate, they launched Operation Disarm last week, with officers using stop-and-search powers to check for knives, and increased plain-clothed patrols.
In Manchester and Kent, officers have stepped up work in schools to win over young minds.
In rural Devon, plans for a £1million knife- crime prevention centre have been unveiled. But the killing continues.
Year's deaths so far
JAN 1: Business studies student Isaiah Usen-Satchell, 18, was stabbed at around 4.20am in Sheffield.
JAN 1: Mark Roberts, 52, was knifed at a flat in New Brighton, Merseyside, at 10.25pm. Police later charged a man.
JAN 1: Helen Hancock, 39, and Martin Griffiths, 48, were stabbed in Duffield, Derbys. A man was charged.
JAN 3: Uber Eats worker Takieddine “Taki” Boudhane, 30, was killed at around 6.50pm near Finsbury Park, North London.
JAN 4: Boxer Mohammed Aman Ashraq, 18, was knifed in Slough, Berks. Two men were charged.
JAN 6: Oliver Wells, 18, was stabbed in Newhaven, East Sussex. A 16-year-old has been charged.
JAN 9: A murder investigation was launched after Darren MacCormick, 44, was killed in Didcot, Oxon.
JAN 15: Nasir Patrice, 17, of Birmingham, died in Leamington Spa. A 16-year-old has been charged.
JAN 16: A mum-of-two was stabbed in Newmarket, Suffolk. A man has appeared in court.
JAN 16: 53-year-old factory worker Robert Wilson was killed in Linthwaite, near Huddersfield. Two teens have been charged.
JAN 16: Student Cameron Blair, 20, was stabbed at a party in Cork, Munster. A teen has been charged.
JAN 19: Harinder Kumar 22, Narinder Singh, 26, and Baljit Singh, 34, were killed in Seven Kings, Ilford.
JAN 19: A boy of 17 was knifed in Southampton. A 15-year-old, from Andover, Hants, has been charged.
JAN 24: A Polish national in his 60s was stabbed in Clapton, North East London. A man has been charged.
JAN 26: Damien Bendelow, 20, died after being knifed in Liskeard, Cornwall. A man has been charged.
JAN 27: Louis Johnson, 16, was stabbed at East Croydon train station. A boy of 16 has been charged.
JAN 31: Liam Taylor, 19, died and another man was injured in a stabbing outside a pub in Writtle, Essex. A man has been charged.
FEB 1: A man of 53 died in Gosport, Hants. A man has been charged.
FEB 4: James Webb, 44, was knifed at home in Northfleet, Kent, on February 4. A man has appeared in court.
FEB 5: Babacar Diagne, 15, was stabbed to death in Coventry.
The first death this year was of student Isaiah Usen-Satchell, 18, who was stabbed in Sheffield at around 4.20am on New Year’s Day.
His sister Anne later posted on Facebook: “I’m so heartbroken, guys . . . he’s gone and there’s nothing that can bring him back. You were so loved by everyone, Isaiah.”
Later on New Year’s Day, three other people died of stab wounds.
So far, the youngest casualty this year was Babacar Diagne, 15, found dead in a Coventry park.
Government statistics show rural areas and small towns have also been torn apart.
On February 1, for example, Liam Taylor, 19, was fatally stabbed outside a village pub in Writtle, Essex.
Meanwhile, Dyfed-Powys in Wales saw the highest increase in knife crime over the past decade, a 156-per-cent increase.
The number of offences rose from 98 in 2010, to 156 last year.
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Another anti-knives campaigning initiative is the Ben Kinsella Trust, named for the 16-year-old stabbed to death in an unprovoked attack in Islington, North London, in 2008.
The charity’s chief executive, Patrick Green, says: “If we want to stop knife crime, the Prime Minister must focus on prevention and early intervention, stopping knife crime at source and saving victims and offenders from a tragic future.
“If he takes these steps, then I am confident we can reverse the trend and, 12 years after Ben’s murder, stop other families having to endure a lifetime of pain.”
We must do more
Nick De Bois, ex-Tory MP, and campaigner
MORE needs to be done to tackle knife crime.
Courts must also do their job by putting repeat offenders into jail where they belong. Money should be no obstacle to this, and neither should the political will to do it.
This is something close to my heart. In March 2010, I knocked on the door of a mother in my North London constituency of Enfield – Yvonne Lawson, whose son Godwin had been senselessly and tragically stabbed to death earlier that week.
Working with Yvonne and an army of campaigners, we got the Government to introduce a “two strikes” law which meant, if you are convicted of carrying a knife twice, you go to jail.
After all, to kill someone with a knife, you have to first carry one. But, unbelievably, five years after it came into force, our courts still fail to send many repeat offenders to jail. It is not good enough.
In London alone, half of those offenders charged with homicide had previously committed a knife crime. Is it any wonder that, already in 2020, we’ve seen more murders by stabbing than this time last year?
We cannot tolerate another year of wasted lives.
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