Knife crime London

The alarming spread of knife crime is highlighted today with a snapshot study of a day in London's courts.

From murders and rapes to street robberies, Evening Standard reporters at six courts recorded the scale of the problem.

Our findings, days after financier John Monckton was stabbed to death in Chelsea, back up police figures showing a knife crime is committed in the capital every 25 minutes, with offences up 13 per cent last year.

On a single day, the courts we visited heard 18 cases involving offensive weapons - including 14 knives, two razor blades, a sword, a hammer, a fork and a screwdriver.

Alleged offences included:

Commander Simon Foy, the head of the Met's anti-knife-crime campaign, said: "The high volume of cases in the courts is good because it means we are arresting them." But he warned that in some groups, knives are becoming more fashionable.

He added: "The Met's Operation Blunt was kicked off by a magistrate concerned about the number of young people in her court whose lives were being ruined by knives."

Some criminals switched to knives after maximum five-year jail sentences were introduced for gun possession-Having a knife carries a twoyear-maximum sentence, or double if the offence is at a school. There were 14,110 knife offences in London in the nine months to March this year, an average of 361 a week.

Even affluent boroughs are affected. Kensington and Chelsea, where Mr Monckton was murdered on Monday, has seen the highest percentage rise in knife crime in London in the past two years. One in six muggings in the capital now involves a knife, while knifepoint burglaries have risen by 150 per cent. Knives are also the most common murder implement, involved in 27 per cent of deaths.

Richard Barnes, Tory spokesman on the Met Police Authority (MPA), said: "Knife crime is a bigger threat than gun crime in my view."

An investigation by the BBC's Panorama programme last month revealed children as young as seven were carrying knives. The MPA found 80 per cent of offenders are aged 12 to 20.

A Mori survey last year found 29 per cent of secondary school children admitted having carried a knife. "It's the schoolchildren that carry them," said Mr Barnes. "Some people try to tell me it's fashion but if you talk to the kids they tell you it's for protection. Most victims [of street crime] are aged 14 to 16 and most perpetrators are 15 to 17. They don't seem to relate carrying knives to serious injury and death."

Lib-Dem home affairs spokesman Mark Oaten said his research found illegal knives for sale on the internet and demanded legislation to deal with this.