UK News 14-12-2004 Five Years For Knife Crime who: Victims of Crime Trust what: Campaigns for mandatory five-year prison sentence for carrying a knife where: LONDON when: Yesterday snippet: "Relatives of victims stabbed to death on Britain`s streets are campaigning for a mandatory five-year prison sentence for carrying a knife," says The Times. "Jayne Walmsley, whose 14-year-old son Luke was killed in a Lincolnshire school corridor last year, said at a press conference yesterday to announce the campaign: `Unless something is done, they seem to have no deterrent`." "The delegation from the Knives Destroy Lives campaign made their protest as Home Secretary David Blunkett prepared to meet police and campaigners tomorrow to discuss gun and knife crime," says The Mirror. "The Victims of Crime Trust, which is behind the campaign, wants knife crime to be put on the same level as gun crime." The campaigners say anyone found guilty of carrying a blade longer than 3" (7.6cm) should receive minimum jail term of five years and adults caught with a blade shorter than 3" should be jailed for six months, or three months for juveniles. The BBC website has profiles of some of the families involved in the campaign, including Bernard Hegarty, who was stabbed to death in his lunch break while out shopping; Norman Brennan, a former policeman who is now director of the Trust after being stabbed while pursuing a suspect; and Kieran Rodney-Davis, who died in June when thief stabbed him for his mobile `phone. [... more]

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