Huge rise in county’s stabbing murders

Dec 30 2008 by Neil Atkinson, Huddersfield Daily Examiner

The figures may change before their official release in the new year if the police or the courts decide some killings should be reclassified.

But the raw data is likely to re-ignite the debate about Government efforts to crack down on knife crime.

Shadow Home Affairs Minister James Brokenshire, who uncovered the figures, said: “Knife crime is a scourge which claims too many lives and ruins countless others. Yet under Labour it has soared.

“The Government’s only response is short term, ad hoc police operations, the results of which they spin and manipulate any way to try and get a good story.

“So 2009 must herald a new approach.

“We must also address the underlying causes of crime, such as drugs, family breakdown and gang culture.

“These are issues that Labour have ignored for 11 years but which undermine all our other efforts to combat knife crime.”

With this year’s figures added, the average number of deaths from knives or other sharp instruments in the last decade was 241, he added.

That compares with 203 between 1988 and 1997.