Grimsby mum speaks of heartache of losing son to knife crime ahead of new measures to be announced

With new measures announced later to tackle knife crime - a Grimsby mum, who's son died from a stabbing, tells us no parent should have to go through losing a child like that

29-year-old Jack Howes died in hospital after sustaining stab wounds to his chest and stomach during an altercation earlier this year.

His mum Rebecca is sharing her heartache in the hope to warn others against carrying knives, she said:

"All I wanted to do was cuddle my boy and I couldn't. I just had told his cold, hard hands, walking into the funeral parlour and seeing your baby lying in a coffin. No parents should be able togo through that.

"I opened the door, my husband was crying. He put his arms around me and he said, it's Jack, he's dead. The police officer said, sorry to say that Jack, has been in an incident and he hasn't made it. He's dead.

"My life's not my life anymore. People say it gets easier, but it hasn't gotten any easier.

"It's got harder. The first few months it was just shock, and now it's the grief. The grief is just unbearable. The pain you have to go through the trial. I watched over and over again the CCTV footage of them stabbing him and then him running off holding his side, and then he collapsed to the floor and he was dead within minutes."

Rebecca ‘s been working with Humberside Police to raise awareness of their campaign ‘what's The Point.' Constable Ben Wigg says it impacts emergency workers too, he said:

"The training that we get as police officers, no matter how good it is, nothing will ever actually prepare you for being exposed to those sort of incidents.

"If you've never dealt with that sort of thing before, you can just turn up and go into a state of shock yourself. The primary role of a police officer is to save life. So that is the most important thing that you're trying to remember, but you're thinking about all sorts. Are the suspects still on scene? Are they still there with weapons?"

The campaign coincides with Operation Sceptre that is running nationally this week to get knives off streets.

Meanwhile, the Home Office said the proposed measures, announced today, to make senior technology executives "personally liable" were in a bid to combat the "unacceptable use of social media and online marketplaces to market illegal weapons and glorify violence" and to make sure content is quickly removed.

Police will be given the power to issue notices to senior bosses at online companies and order them to remove specific adverts and content, potentially within two days, if the plans progress.

Officers can then send a second notice if the company still fails to act which would hold the executive personally liable for a "significant fine" if they do not take action..