On Sunday 17th November 2024 police officers from Team 2 response Wester Hailes attended two separate incidents which resulted in the recovery of knives from people on public streets in Fountainbridge and Stenhouse.
An adult male and an adult female were arrested with one appearing from custody and one appearing at Edinburgh sheriff court on a later date.
No persons were injured, and no member of the public was at risk during these incidents.
Knife crime has impacted me in ways I can’t explain. It’s forced me to grow up and deal with situations I shouldn’t have had to deal with at such a young age.
I’m 20 now, but I’ve been losing friends constantly since I was 17. When I hear someone has been stabbed, I think: oh my god, is it someone in my family? Is it one of my friends?
Imagine you losing your child or your friend to a knife, and how damaging that is. Imagine not being able to see them again because their life has been taken from them by someone else. That has become my reality, it’s what I am used to now.
I originally started working with Empire Fighting Chance because my brother took his own life. We’re a charity which uses non-contact boxing to inspire young people to reach their full potential, and my journey with them started because I wanted to help young people who were in the same situation as him, and me.
Over time, I began losing more and more people in my life to knife crime. But the trigger for me was losing Eddie, one of my best friends growing up.
Eddie King Muthemba Kinuthia and I had been friends since we were three years old. We were always together. We went to the same nursery and primary school. For a while we went to the same secondary school. As we got older, we drifted slightly, but the love was still there.
He was a really kind person; everyone in our community knew him, and they knew him for the right things. Ever since he died, so many people he knew have tried to honour him in some way, because he was such an important person to so many, and such a good role model.
To have to speak about him in the past tense is crazy. I still can’t believe that he’s gone.
We’re still seeking justice for Eddie, but after losing him I thought, okay I need to do something. This is getting out of hand. I don’t want to see another person I love die.
Since then, I have continued to work with Empire and deliver boxing lessons for free every week to young men who may be involved in knife crime, drug dealing, or any situation that could lead to those things happening.
I work with various organisations which enable me to speak with young people about their experiences with the system and crime and what they would like to change, and I am starting my own youth group, where we come together every fortnight and talk about what we want to change, which I hope can grow and develop over time.
I believe we’re not hearing from young people enough.
We need to be inviting young people to events like today, to places like Downing Street, so they know that their voices are heard. I am so grateful for the opportunity I have been given, but we need to give more young people the platform to share their views.
Attending events like the Knife Crime Summit will help – even being invited has probably changed my life. If I look back to five years ago, I could have gone down a very different path where I was involved in knife crime.
A lot of the young people I work with ask me: “How did you go from there to where you are today?”
Just inviting one young person like me here could have a domino effect on other young people.
I believe it’s important for the right legislation to be in place – that change is good – but we need to focus on immediate action. It’s getting to the point where someone is dying every day.
In my opinion, it’s also about the little things we can do that don’t cost money. Around that table today there were so many role models – Idris Elba, the Prime Minister, loads of MPs – and it is so important to see them supporting organisations like mine, because it can inspire young people.
I was a young person who didn’t believe that I could do anything. Then I met Marvin Rees, who was Mayor of Bristol at the time, and Martin Bisp, the Chief Executive of Empire. They are the reason I am here today.
They showed me that I can come to places like this, I can speak about issues like this, and I can have that domino effect on other young people who feel they don’t have a voice.
Within seconds, my whole life was shattered.
I miss talking to him. I miss hugging him, hearing his giggles, his laugh, his loud noise, his cheeky look in his eyes.
It’s horrifying to know that a beautiful child of yours – a good person, a good human being – has been taken by something so cruel and for no reason. Because they mistook him for somebody else.
On the evening of 29th June 2022, Ronan went to play snooker with his friend. It was the first time he’d gone out after finishing his GCSEs. It was a treat.
I was out of the house at a meditation class. My neighbour, who was at the class with me, got a call. I got up, hearing the commotion.
“What’s happened?” I asked.
“There’s been a stabbing on our street, we need to get home,” she replied.
I didn’t know then that it was my own child. You don’t think it can happen to you.
I remember ringing Ronan, but he wasn’t picking up the phone. That’s not like Ronan – Ronan knows, he knows me, he knows to answer. But he didn’t.
My husband was at home, so I rang him and asked him to go outside to find out what was happening. He told me that Ronan had popped out for five minutes to go to his friend’s house. We both agreed to phone Ronan to tell him to get home as soon as possible.
My husband rang back crying.
“It’s Ronan, Pooja. They’re saying it’s an Asian-Indian boy.”
The perpetrators had stabbed him in his abdomen, 20 centimetres deep with a 20 inch Ninja sword. When he turned around, they stabbed him again with a Ninja sword that went through his heart. The blood was pouring out of his body.
He tried running home, but he collapsed two doors away from his house.
On my way from class, I remember asking my friend to drive me quicker and I jumped out of the moving car. Running towards the police taped area and begging the police officers to let me through, to let me hold my child.
Even though the paramedics tried to operate to save him, my Ronan died on the very street he grew up. He didn’t stand a chance.
An innocent child walking home. Murdered, just like that.
In the court case, we found out how the online sale of these threatening bladed articles played a massive role in my son’s murder. Since then, we have been and will continue fighting for a ban on machetes, zombie knives, Ninja swords and other bladed weapons. There is no need for these deadly knives to be in our society. In the wrong hands they are lethal weapons.
For each murder that happens, there have been clear failures in our system. Ronan’s murder happened because a Ninja sword was bought using a parent’s credit card with no ID checks. We also hear about the failures within the education system, within the policing system, within online sales and more. Now all these failures are being addressed so we can start correcting them.
We’re going down the right path.
If it takes a bit of time, so be it. But we need to understand that this needs to be dealt with from now on.
I would like to thank Sir Keir Starmer, the Home Secretary Yvette Cooper, Idris Elba and my MP Pat McFadden. These are the people who are passionate about this issue and do want to make a difference. So, thank you to them.
I feel very grateful to be here, so I can share my child’s story and can fight for him. I feel like there are other people who don’t get heard.
What happened to Ronan should never have happened. My Ronan was a good, funny, humble, charismatic, intelligent and kind boy. He was every mother’s dream son.
From his school, a mother approached me to tell me how Ronan stopped their child getting bullied – now that child remembers my child and was heartbroken to learn what had happened.
He was a beautiful person and he was too good for this world. I apologise to him every morning for bringing him into this cruel world and not being able to protect him. So, this is my way of doing something for him.
Ronan’s Law will be a strong move and bring, I hope, much-needed change. Banning these weapons should be the basic start to combatting knife crime.
In my son’s memory, I have a tattoo on my arm of his heartbeat – the words underneath say: ‘Mom is proud of you, Ronan’ and his name is in his own writing. His mantra was to make me proud.
I’d give my life today for Ronan, if I could.
I wish I gave my heart to him to save him. Every child deserves to grow up safely and I wish my son had this opportunity.
I am the proud mother of Ronan Kanda.
I’M JUST A MOTHER FIGHTING FOR WHAT’S RIGHT.
A nationwide call to hand over zombie-style knives and machetes has been launched by the UK government, before these dangerous weapons are banned from our streets.
From 24 September, it will be illegal to own zombie-style knives and machetes as they will be added to the list of dangerous prohibited items already banned, including zombie knives, butterfly knives, Samurai swords and push daggers.
Ahead of the new ban coming into force, anyone who has one of these weapons is being urged to hand them over – safely and legally.
This scheme will be run at police stations across England and Wales for four weeks between 26 August and 23 September, without repercussions for surrendering these potentially dangerous knives safely.
Individuals can also anonymously dispose of these weapons using safe, surrender bins, by contacting their local police, council or an anti-knife crime charity to find out about alternative options, other than police stations, in their area.
After 24 September, anyone caught with a zombie-style knife or a machete faces time behind bars.
Policing Minister, Diana Johnson said: “Too many people have access to weapons that can lead to devastating, life-changing consequences. There is no legitimate need for a weapon of this kind to be in our homes or on our streets.
“That is why we will continue to make sure the tightest restrictions are in place to limit the availability of these lethal weapons. Implementing a ban on zombie-style knives is just the first step in our ambitious, dedicated plan to halve knife crime within a decade, and will closely be followed by making ninja swords illegal.
“It is absolutely crucial that members of the public come forward and safely hand in these weapons. We are offering people the chance to do the right thing – to help make our streets safer, prevent further loss of life and save so many futures.
“We cannot do this alone, political, policing and community leaders must work together to bring the knife crime epidemic to an end and offer a better future for our young people.”
Participating police stations are spread across the country, and people should contact their designated police station first to get advice on how to package up any weapons and bring them into the station.
This scheme is just one part of the government’s pledge to halve knife crime in a decade. Next steps will include further bans, stronger rules to stop online sales, and tough action to stop young people being drawn into crime.
THE sister of Ben Kinsella has paid tribute to a new report published by the anti-knife crime charity which set up following his murder.
Former Eastenders actress Brooke Kinsella said too many young people were carrying blades in the “blinkered belief it will make them safer”.
Brooke, whose brother Ben was stabbed to death in 2008, was responding to a major study by the Ben Kinsella Trust which took two years to compile.
The charity spoke to more than 9,500 children and teenagers, and over 240 teachers and youth workers over two years to conduct a review into the impact knives are having across our neighbourhoods.
It revealed more than a third of respondents (36%) no longer feel safe walking the streets, and that one in four (25%) feel carrying a knife makes them safer.
Alarmingly, the report also found 6% of kids aged just 10-11 years old have even considered carrying a blade.
Commenting on the report, Brooke said: “This important report is deeply shocking, and shows just how much more work we have to do.
“Since my brother’s death, the Ben Kinsella Trust has worked tirelessly to help reduce knife crime, and to educate young people about the misery blades bring to communities.
“This report underlines the fact that so many young people are fearful about knife crime. But also, that too many are also prepared to carry one in the blinkered belief they think it will make them safer.
“The number of young people, especially girls, who feel unsafe on the streets is particularly shocking as is the age at which people are thinking of arming themselves with knives.
“Change starts with education. And the Ben Kinsella Trust will continue to help schools to inform young people about the dangers of blades and shatter the myth they keep you safe. This is vital to ensure other families aren’t left devastated like we were by knife crime.”
The report also revealed how:
● Over one-third (36%) of young people no longer feel safe in their own neighbourhoods.
● Two-thirds (64%) feel anxious about knife crime in their area.
● And, notably, 43% of girls specifically mentioned feeling unsafe where they live.
● A quarter (25%) said they knew someone who had carried a knife.
The report, funded by the London Violence Reduction Unit, was based on data collected over a two year period (2022-2023) from participants who visited a Choices and Consequences Exhibition run by the unit in Islington and Barking.
The report features the views of 9,507 young people aged 10-17 and 247 teachers and youth workers. The workshops conducted at these exhibitions engage young people with real-life stories, immersive theatre and foster open discussions, promoting trauma-informed practices and positive interactions.
And the report found the exhibitions “not only positively impacted young people, but it empowered educators too.
It found teachers are more likely to integrate anti-knife crime lessons into their curriculum after participating in the program and that they felt more equipped and motivated to address this critical issue.
The report gauged beliefs before and after attendance at the exhibitions, and it found:
● The number of young people who thought a knife would protect them drops from 24% to 5%.
● 73% who had considered carrying a knife pledged never to do so following the workshop.
● 89% of attendees pledge never to carry a knife.
A consultation looking at whether cowardly domestic killers should receive tougher sentences if they subject their victims to a campaign of coercive and controlling abuse, has been launched by the Lord Chancellor
Ministers will also consider whether murderers who use a knife or another weapon already at the crime scene to kill should also face steeper starting points – a change that could result in higher minimum terms in these cases.
Every year, around 90 people – overwhelmingly women – are killed by their current or ex-partner, with most of these murders taking place in the home. And when a weapon is used – often a kitchen knife – it is normally already at the scene.
This means that although weapons are used, these offences generally do not qualify for a higher starting point – with a discrepancy of up to ten years compared with murders where a weapon is taken to the scene.
Lord Chancellor and Justice Secretary Alex Chalk said: “It is shocking that around 1 in 4 murders are committed by a current or former partner, or relative.
“This Government has already gone further than ever to protect women and girls, with tough new protection orders plus laws to ensure abusers and killers spend longer behind bars.
“To make sure sentencing policy is meeting the threat, it is right to review this complex landscape so that the scourge of violence against women is tackled as coherently and effectively as possible.”
Currently, when a knife or other weapon is taken to the murder scene with intent, the starting point is 25 years. This reflects the increased risk to the public when knives are carried on the streets. Where a knife is used, but not taken to the scene, a 15-year starting point normally applies.
Campaigners on this issue include Carole Gould and Julie Devey, whose daughters Ellie Gould and Poppy Devey Waterhouse were killed by their former partners using knives found in the home.
Justice Minister, Gareth Bacon, said: “For some evil people, murder is the brutal final act of a controlling and coercive relationship with their partner. It is only right we look at whether the sentences for these types of killings reflect this sustained and unacceptable abuse.
“This consultation builds on the action we are taking to clamp down on domestic homicide, by introducing new laws to punish abusers with longer jail terms, and better protect victims.”
The consultation reflects the Government’s determination to ensure the sentencing framework for murder properly punishes perpetrators of this horrific crime, while giving victims’ families the justice they deserve.
In response to Clare Wade’s landmark independent review of sentencing in cases of domestic homicide, the Government has introduced a raft of measures to ensure sentences reflect the seriousness of the crime.
This includes the introduction of new legislation which will make:
The Domestic Homicide Sentence Review was commissioned in 2021 to examine whether the sentencing framework should be reformed to better reflect the seriousness of domestic homicide and to identify options for improvements.
It followed a series of high-profile domestic murders and concerns from the then Victims’ Commissioner and Domestic Abuse Commissioner about how these offences are handled by the justice system.
This is the latest step in the Government’s commitment to be tough to keep the worst offenders locked up.
The UK Government has already ended the automatic release of sex and terrorist offenders, brought in a minimum 14-year jail term for anyone convicted of serious terror offences and under the new Sentencing Bill, the most horrific murderers will spend the rest of their lives locked up, including for any murder involving sexual or sadistic conduct, while criminals who commit rape and other serious sexual offences will spend every day of their sentence behind bars.
Safeguard Medical is calling for the introduction of life-saving bleed kits across the UK and offering over 500 places on FREE bleed control training sessions for UK public to help support emergency responders to save more lives.
In a recent survey of UK Emergency Medical Services, Fire and Police commissioned by Safeguard Medical, 87% of respondents agreed that if the public were more aware of the immediate care required following major trauma, preventable deaths would decrease.
The majority of first responders (85%) believe that more lives could be saved with the introduction of bleeding control kits, placed alongside every public access defibrillator.
The UK Government has released statistics that over 41,000 knife crime offences occurred in 2020/21, of which 224 were homicides. Bleed kits contain lifesaving equipment including tourniquets to stop major bleeding and haemostatic bandages that can be ‘packed’ into a wound to stop haemorrhaging.
Safeguard Medical is appealing to raise greater awareness of the vital skills that help to preserve life following a trauma incident. During the COVID pandemic, emergency responders reported increased pressures, with 95% agreeing they have responded to an increased number of trauma incidents.
Almost half of those surveyed (48%) agreed that the public could be better prepared to respond while waiting for professional ambulance assistance to arrive on scene.
Emergency responders are also dealing with the mental health impact of witnessing and experiencing trauma, with 94% agreeing that their mental health had suffered because of the increased pressures placed on the emergency medical services during the pandemic.
Safeguard Medical believes that if the public were better prepared to deal with medical and trauma emergencies, this immediate support could help reduce mental health pressure on emergency medical responders, whilst also directly saving lives.
One of Safeguard Medical’s partners, the Midlands Air Ambulance Charity, will host a training session on World Trauma Day at Merry Hill Shopping Centre in the West Midlands, delivered by Safeguard Medical’s training division, Prometheus Medical.
At this free, open event, the public can learn vital first aid skills that could save someone’s life. These include how to perform CPR, use a defibrillator and how to manage major bleeding.
Ian Jones, air operations manager for Midlands Air Ambulance Charity, said: “With more than 63% of the charity’s missions being trauma-related, it’s important to use this day to shine a light on the enhanced critical care our crews provide, and what bystanders can do to help the patient before medical expertise even arrives.
“In addition, the demand for advanced medicines and equipment coupled with specialist care on scene delivered by our critical care paramedics and flight doctors continues to rise annually, with a 1.3 per cent rise in trauma-related incidents compared to 2020, which was already an extraordinary year with additional Covid pressures.”
The emergency responders surveyed agreed that since the pandemic, certain trauma incidents have increased considerably. For example, as more people have been upgrading their homes, DIY accidents have increased (28%), as have falls from height and sporting incidents (25%).
Professor Richard Lyon MBE, Chief Medical Officer at Safeguard Medical and a practising NHS Consultant in Emergency Medicine & Pre-hospital Care, said: “Tragic incidents like the fatal attack on MP David Amess highlights that penetrating trauma incidents can occur anywhere, at any time.
“There is a real opportunity for better public access to life saving equipment, like bleed kit, in order to save more lives. Even with an air ambulance travelling in a straight line at over 130mph to an incident, patients can bleed out in under 5 minutes in some circumstances.
“Minutes are critical when you are bleeding. This is why a tourniquet or haemostatic trauma bandages in bleed kits give the public the chance to intervene and save a life.
“Our rapid response teams can then focus on keeping the patient stable and preparing them for medical intervention once at the hospital.”
Professor Lyon agreed that during the UK lockdowns, the number of callouts to incidents reduced but added: “There’s been a significant increase in recreational incidents following the lifting of lockdowns.
“Accident from sporting incidents, DIY, road traffic collisions, falls from heights, as well as an increase in mental health-related incidents and assault-related trauma – particularly knife crime – have all increased.”
Safeguard Medical is dedicated to equipping responders at every skill level to saving life, in any environment. Which is why its training arm, Prometheus Medical, is providing over 500 free places on its medical training courses across the UK to help prepare the public and businesses to respond better to medical emergencies by understanding bleed control.
Elite medical training company Prometheus Medical, is offering free training on trauma response and bleed control in Edinburgh on 15th and 16th February 2022
Register interest here:
https://news.prometheusmedical.co.uk/p/6X1A-1S7/worldtraumaday
To find out more and register your interest for the free training sessions, visit www.prometheusmedical.com
To learn about how Safeguard can supply bleed kits for general public use, visit:
A demonstration of how to use the Bleed Control Kit can be viewed here:
“Saving a life outweighs the fear of being called a grass.”
The Cabinet Secretary for Justice, Humza Yousaf will today launch a new resource, created by No Knives Better Lives, intended to help young people safely intervene when they suspect someone they know is carrying a knife. Continue reading NAE DANGER: new resource to tackle knife crime to be launched today
Police have released images of two men they wish to trace as they believe they may be able to assist with their ongoing enquiries into an assault and attempted robbery in Leith. Continue reading CCTV appeal following Leith knife crime
A teenager has been sentenced to four years in prison for violent attacks on two men in Edinburgh city centre last year.
The now 17-year-old, who can’t be named for legal reasons, pled guilty to one charge of attempted murder and one charge of assault to severe injury at Edinburgh Sheriff Court on Monday 18 January 2019, and yesterday he was sentenced for the attacks that happened within three days of each other last September. Continue reading Youth jailed for violent attacks
