Judge calls for debate about a "scourge of knife crime" among young people
It comes after two 12-year-old's were convicted of a knife murder in Wolverhampton.
Last updated 22nd Jun 2024
A judge has called for a "vitally important debate" about a "scourge of knife crime" among young people.
Official figures show that knife crime rose by 7% in England and Wales in the year to December 2023, compared with the previous 12 months, but the total 49,489 offences recorded remained below pre-pandemic levels.
This year, there have been numerous examples of teenagers and children being found guilty and sentenced for stabbing other young people to death.
Two 12-year-old boys were thought to have become the youngest knife murderers in the UK after being found guilty in June of a brutal machete attack on a teenager who was stabbed through the heart in a Wolverhampton park.
Jurors unanimously convicted the youths, who are believed to be youngest defendants convicted of murder in Britain since Robert Thompson and Jon Venables, both aged 11, were found guilty in 1993 of killing two-year-old James Bulger.
A month-long trial at Nottingham Crown Court was told Shawn Seesahai, 19, was shoulder-barged by the smaller of the two defendants, who "often" carried a machete with a 42.5cm-long blade, before being punched, kicked, stamped on and "chopped" at with the weapon.
The boys are due to be sentenced in July.