The number of knife-related homicides has reached its highest level since records began more than 70 years ago with four in 10 of all murders now involving a blade, new data reveal.
The increase was driven by an 18 percent increase in the number of young men dying, with the number of male victims aged 16 to 17 years jumping from 10 to 24.
One of those teenage victims was Levi Ernest-Morrison, 17, who was stabbed to death in Sydenham, southeast London after being chased by a gang armed with knives and a machete.
Alex Sprules, 17, was jailed for life for murder and Tyreese Ulysses, 19, was jailed for 13 years for manslaughter. Ulysses’s mother, Nichola Leighton, 36, was also jailed for life for murder.
The trial heard she was outraged when Ernest-Morrison and his friends banged on her front door, rang her son, and then drove him and Sprules to hunt down the group.
The ONS report pointed out knives and machetes were used in 75 percent of teenage murders compared with just 40 percent of adult homicides.
Patrick Green, chief executive of the Ben Kinsella Trust, an anti-knife crime charity, blamed the COVID-19 pandemic and the lockdowns for making young people feel more “vulnerable.”
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