Bedfordshire Police echo judge's plea to drop the knives
His Honour Judge Michael Simon yesterday urged young people not to carry knives, as he sentenced a teenager for fatally stabbing a man
A judge issued a plea to young people not to carry knives, as he sentenced a teenager for fatally stabbing a man in Bedford last year.
Jacob Zuco, who was 18 at the time of the killing, stabbed 20-year-old Leon Penman in the chest with a hunting-style knife during an altercation on a busy carpark.
The court yesterday heard Zuco had previously stabbed Mr Penman in March that year, when he was 17, during another confrontation between the two, leaving him with a permanent disability.
Zuco was sentenced to a minimum of 20 years in prison.
During sentencing, His Honour Judge Michael Simon said: "This case is a good example of why young men who seek to justify the carrying of a knife as being for personal protection are both deluding themselves and putting members of the public at risk."
Detective Inspector Dale Mepstead from Bedfordshire Police's Major Crime Unit echoed the judge’s comments.
She said: "The message that we're trying to get out—and was very well put by the judge—is that the current situation of young men in particular, arming themselves with knives for what they deem to be protection, actually isn't the case.
"Statistics show you're more likely to be a knife victim if you carry a knife."
The murder weapon, a hunting-style knife, had been purchased for Zuco by an adult friend.
"They're far too easy for people to get hold of," DI Mepstead said, addind that "there’s an element of culpability for them, because actually, because of our suspect’s age, this offence potentially wouldn’t have happened if it hadn’t been for that adult."
Judge Simon described the knife as “lethal both in size and in design” and added: "It is time for society as a whole to take a stand against the scourge of knives in the hands of children and young people and to promote the mantra of ‘Lives not Knives.’"
DI Mepstead called on the wider community to act: "It’s really up to everyone, I think, as a society to recognise that this is actually causing lots of pain and sorrow and unnecessary trauma for families and victims. Knife crime needs to be stopped.”
In their victim impact statements, Leon Penman’s mother and partnerdescribed their grief and the devastating loss faced by their family, including Leon's two young daughters.