Father of murdered boy Charlie Cosser calls on government to go further in tackling knife crime

Ahead of the government's ban on ninja swords, which will come into force on Friday, anti-knife crime campaigner Martin Cosser has said the government need to go much further than that to actually tackle the problem. Cosser, whose son Charlie died after being stabbed at a party by another 17-year-old in 2023, says the fight has to begin with education.

Cosser, from Surrey, said: "I don't understand how - when we live in a country where knife crime has grown 80% in the last ten years - schools still have a choice as to whether they have knife crime education."

He said that while the ninja sword ban is important, just banning large blades doesn't address the full problem.

"Charlie lost every milligram of blood in his body ... with a knife that was two inches long.

"If we continue to do what we've always done for the last 15, 20 years - and that appears to me to be only knife crime amnesties - then we are not going to halve knife crime in the next ten years."

Cosser has taken matters into his own hands. Since April of last year, he has been the founder and CEO of Charlie's Promise, a charity which raises awareness about knife crime, primarily through speaking to young people.

Since September 2024, Cosser has spoken to 41,000 young people about knife crime - 5,000 of whom have been primary school children.

Even at such a young age, Cosser says his audience are affected by the story.

"I talk about missed opportunities. The night Charlie was stabbed, a shank was mentioned twice, and a knife once. Although the other young people at the party are not responsible for Charlie's murder, if one of them had done something about it, and reported it to the mum who was at home, 100 metres away in a farmhouse, my little boy would still be alive."

Cosser does stress that campaigners have made large strides. He has worked with Pooja Kanda, whose son Ronan was fatally stabbed by a ninja sword in 2022. Ronan's death compelled the government to introduce Ronan's Law, which requires retailers to report suspicious and bulk purchases of knives on their platforms to police.

Knife crime devastates the lives of the family members it leaves behind. Cosser shares that his whole family, all of whom work with Charlie's Promise, have been deeply impacted; Cosser's wife Tara still sleeps with the light on. The couple keep Charlie's ashes in their house, after visiting multiple crematoriums, but finding nobody who was near to Charlie's age.

The second anniversary of Charlie's death came last Friday, and with it came condolences from Cosser's friends and acquaintances. While Cosser appreciated the messages, he said that every day is painful after losing a child, not just the anniversary.

"Something we don't have enough of is support for men. Men aren't very good at this, I'm gonna be honest with you. I have friends that I've had for 30 years that I don't hear from because they just don't know what to say."

As a campaigner, which has now become his life's work, Cosser encourages not just the friends of survivors to reach out, but also implores young people to speak up, and that it's not "snitching" to want to keep themselves and their friends safe.

He points young people who suspect that someone they know has a knife to report it at fearless.org - a completely anonymous service which Cosser says doesn't even track the user's IP address. "And it may just save a life."