UK Knife Crime Dipped During Pandemic but Blades Still Causing Mayhem

Tyson Fury is latest to demand longer sentences

A police officer guards the scene where Rico Burton, cousin of heavyweight boxing champion Tyson Fury, was stabbed, in Altrincham, Greater Manchester, UK, on Aug. 22, 2022. PA

Heavyweight boxing champion Tyson Fury has called for “higher sentencing” for knife crime offenders in the UK after his cousin was stabbed to death over the weekend.

But is knife crime really getting worse, and would longer sentences work?

Rico Burton, 31, died in Manchester Royal Infirmary on Aug. 21 after being stabbed in the early hours of the day outside a pub in Altrincham, Greater Manchester. A teenager was also injured in the incident.

Fury wrote on his Instagram account, which has 5.7 million followers: “My cousin was murdered last night, stabbed in the neck this is becoming ridiculous. ... Idiots carry knives. This needs to stop. Asap, UK government needs to bring higher sentencing for knife crime.”

Burton’s death came only days after 87-year-old Tom O'Halloran was stabbed to death as he rode a mobility scooter beside a busy road in west London.

O'Halloran’s was the 58th homicide in London, the vast majority of which were caused by bladed weapons.

An undated photo of Thomas O'Halloran, 87, who was murdered on his mobility scooter in Greenford, London, on Aug. 16, 2022 Metropolitan Police

Last week the Mayor of London, Sadiq Khan, blamed violent crime in the capital on long, hot sunny days.

Khan told LBC: “I’m afraid this summer we are seeing what we feared, which is an increase in violent crime. ... There are longer daylight hours, school holidays, a heatwave, and so forth. We are working with the police to suppress that violence.”

The College of Policing stated that between 2014 and 2020, the number of violent crimes involving knives in England and Wales rose year-over-year but in the year ending in March 2021, the Office for National Statistics stated that it fell to 41,000 from 49,000 and the number of knife-related hospital admissions fell by 41 percent to 4,091.

The former chief constable of the Greater Manchester Police, Sir Peter Fahy, sought to blame violent crime on a backlog of court cases, which he said has led to offenders spending more time released on bail and reoffending.

Is This the ‘New Normal’?

Fahy told Sky News on Aug. 22: “The fact is that we saw a big reduction in knife crime and violence in general during the pandemic, and I think the police is still trying to work out what has happened since then. Have we seen a real increase in violent crime, or are we just coming to a new normal?”

But he doubted longer sentences would accomplish much.

“Often when you’re talking about a random offence like knife crime where somebody chooses suddenly to pull out a knife, and they stab someone in the artery causing them to die, really it’s not in their mind how long of a prison sentence [they are] going to get,” Fahy said.

Knife crime isn’t a new problem in Britain, nor are demands for longer sentences for offenders.

File photo showing a fleeing suspect clutching a knife moments after stabbing a man at the Notting Hill Carnival in London on Aug. 29, 2011. Oli Scarff/Getty Images

In 2006, John Reid, who was the home secretary in Tony Blair’s Labour government, proposed introducing mandatory jail sentences for anyone carrying knives, including a maximum of five years.

Reid was speaking in the wake of the murder of off-duty special constable Nisha Patel-Nasri in northwest London. Her husband Fadi—who pretended to be distraught but was secretly having an affair—was later jailed for life for hiring a hitman to kill her.

Mandatory jail sentences were never introduced by the Labour government, but the sentencing guidelines in England and Wales for possession of a knife have increased to four years today from two years in 2006. There remains no minimum sentence and some offenders escape with just a fine or a caution.

In 2016, the Scottish government allowed judges to jail people for up to five years for possessing knives. But in 2018, the Aberdeen Press and Journal reported that the maximum sentence had only been used once.

Last month, Craig Robson, 29, was jailed for 10 months for possessing a knife in the Scottish town of Hawick. Robson, who had been stabbed a fortnight before, claimed that he carried the knife for his own protection.

Between 2011 and 2018, the number of offenders who received an immediate prison sentence in England and Wales for carrying an offensive weapon rose to 38 percent from 23 percent, and it remained stable until it fell to 31 percent in 2021.

The Office for National Statistics stated that the decrease was likely owing to the pandemic-related lockdowns and their knock-on effect on the criminal justice system, which saw an increase in backlogs and therefore fewer cases being sentenced.

When judges sentence in murder cases, they’re also entitled to increase the minimum tariff based on aggravating factors, one of which would be that the offender was carrying a knife and hadn’t just grabbed a weapon on the spur of the moment.

“Tackling knife crime, reducing violence, and removing weapons from the streets are top priorities for policing,” a National Police Chiefs’ Council spokesman told The Epoch Times in an email. “Proactive policing, speaking to local communities, weapons sweeps, and effective targeting of habitual knife carriers have played a role in the number of offensive weapon offences that are prosecuted. Every weapon removed from the streets is possibly a life saved.

“Preventing young people from carrying knives is not something that police forces can do alone—it requires schools, charities, the health service, and community groups to work together. Early intervention plays a vitally important role in stopping young people from getting involved in crime.”