'If pointed kitchen knives were banned, my Mum would still be alive'
Alan Bacon, who's mother was brutally murdered, is calling for rounded blades to replace pointed kitchen knives on our shelves
A Kent man, whose Mum was brutally murdered, has told us she would still be alive today if pointed kitchen knives were banned.
In 2015, Tracey Goodwin was stabbed 14 times by her ex partner, Ron Bacon, as she came home from work. The pair had been living separate lives since 1998, but had shared a home in Kidbrooke for 36 years.
Following the attack, Bacon was convicted of murder and was jailed for life with a minimum term of 16 years.
Their son, Alan Bacon, has been speaking exclusively to Greatest Hits Radio as part of our investigation, which is looking into Kent police being the first force to exchange pointed kitchen knives for rounded ones.
He said: "When my mum was killed my whole life was blown apart.
"Knives don't just kill the person in front of them, they destroy everything that comes into contact with them. It causes a ripple effect and it took me years to rebuild my life.
"I can't spell out how horrendous it is until you go through it: the grief, the loneliness, the court case, hearing it all again. I had to try and sell my Mum's property, which was the murder scene, I had to go back there, it was so hard."
Alan is calling for rounded blades to be normalised in the home, with people clearing all traditional, domestic knives from their draws.
He would also like supermarkets to remove pointed kitchen knives from their shelves and even a government ban on the utility.
He said: "He Ron was waiting behind the door for my Mum as she came in, he was able to just go into the draw, grab a knife and kill my mum because he was angry.
"And if these pointed kitchen knives weren't available, she would still be here now, it's as simple as that."
In the most recent data, by the home office, kitchen knives were use in two-thirds of all fatal stabbings between March 2023 and April 2024, meaning two people were killed every week by pointed domestic knives.
In contrast, zombie knives, samurai swords, and Rambo knives accounted for only 12.7% of such homicides.
Professor Leisha Professor Leisa Nichols-Drew, from De Montfort University, told us an introduction of rounded knives would save lives, with her research finding they don't even penetrate cotton, let alone skin.