One in 4 kids carries knife

A DEADLY knife culture is slashing its way through Britain's schools, the News of the Worldcan reveal.

Shock new figures show that A QUARTER of our 11 to 16-year-olds arm themselves with the lethal weapons.

And, say researchers, that horrific statistic includesGIRLS.

Today the News of the World launches a Say No To Knives campaign—and backs a government crackdownwhich could see £100,000 X-ray scanners installed in schools across the UK to stop youngsters taking weapons into the classroom.

A staggering 28 per cent of boys and girls said they have carried some sort of blade in the past year.

Twenty five per cent had penknives — but nine per cent admitted they armed themselves with flick knives.

Even more frightening were figures for children who have been expelled and are being taught in special units.

Menace

They revealed nearly HALF (46 per cent) carried penknives and 30 per cent toted flick knives.

In a boys-only poll, the figures rocketed to 42 per cent with knives in regular schools and 64 per cent in special units.

The research, by pollsters MORI for the Youth Justice Board, highlights the menace in which a child dies from a knife attack every TWO WEEKS.

It comes as Britain's growing knife culture is brought into stark reality in tonight's Panorama on BBC1.

The programme reveals children as young as SEVENare roaming the streets with blades, the menace blights nearly EVERY school and two-thirds of stab victims NEVER report attacks to police.

Home Secretary David Blunkett and Education Secretary Charles Clarke (both pictured below right) have both launched inquiries into the explosion of stabbings.

They are studying a London experiment where police have offered schools scanning machines. These devices, used in American schools, see through clothes to reveal weapons.

Headteachers in London can ask police for one of the mobile scanners —developed to combat terrorism—if they believe they have a problem.

Mr Clarke said: "There are simply no excuses for having a knife in school. It is unacceptable and in no way can be tolerated.

"We have already done a lot to help schools deal with the problem. But we are also looking closely at what more can be done."

Metropolitan Police Commissioner Sir John Stephen said: "I'm seriously concerned about the increasing number of knife attacks especially involving young people. Victims and users are getting younger and younger.

"We will take the X-ray machines into schools if headteachers tell us they have a problem."

Fatal stabbings now outnumber gun deaths in the UK by three to one. The explosion is partly due to tougher gun laws with harsh minimum sentences for carrying illegal firearms.

Mr Blunkett is also considering raising the age limit for buying knives from 16 to 18 as another measure.

Panorama investigators wanted to interview school heads about the crisis — which claimed the life last year of Luke Walmsley, 14, who was stabbed to death outside class.

Only ONE would agree. And even then it was only on condition his identity was masked.

Grief

But his damning testimony included the fact that he had found one 14-year-old boy armed with a meat cleaver.

The head revealed: "In the past, the kind of knives would be little Swiss Army knives, sometimes just used to sharpen pencils.

"Today, it's a definitely changing culture, with the switchblade right up to carving knives and meat cleavers.

"The issue is widespread and needs to be brought out into the open. Head teachers KNOW that young people are carrying knives."

A girl on a London estate brags on the show: "Knives are good for mugging people.

"You want something, you put a knife up to them and you get it. What's the point of beating them up? Put a knife to them and you can get it straight away without grief."

Another teenager added chillingly: "Most parents don't even know their son or daughter is carrying a knife to school. They really haven't got a clue."



VICTIM: Ben Goddard, 15

A TEENAGE soccer ace "died" and was brought back to life after losing 16 pints of blood in an horrific stabbing—at his school.

Ben Goddard was a promising youngster with Norwich City when a classmate plunged a kitchen knife into his stomach.

His attacker whispered "I'm going to ****ing kill you" as he rammed home the blade after a maths lesson.

The knife sliced through Ben's liver, pancreas and a major artery

Violent

His heart stopped as medics battled to keep him alive with blood transfusions.

Ben, 17, was on a life support machine for three days after emergency surgery.

But the teenager (left) was not attacked at a violent inner city school.

He was stabbed at Stradbrooke High in a quiet part of Suffolk.

Ben, who was 15 when knifed, is now backing moves to get detecting scanners in schools. He said: "I'm lucky to be alive. If a stabbing can happen here it can happen anywhere."

The youngster—featured on Panorama tonight—revealed his horror to the News of the World. He said his attacker grabbed him by the neck and yanked him forward.

Ben, now recovered and studying for A-Levels, went on: "I didn't realise what had happened until blood pressure forced the knife out.

"He'd left the knife inside me and stepped away—and just stood looking at me.

"He didn't say anything, just looked. The knife fell on the floor. And that's when I knew it was bad."

Ben's PE teacher saved his life by clamping a hand to the wound. But he was so traumatised that he had to take six months off work and has now left to teach abroad.

Police tried to charge the thug with attempted murder but had to settle for GBH.

Ben's mum Eileen was in court as the the attacker got a year's youth detention. She said: "He looked like any other lad,not a thug at all."

Our view: Knife menace threatens us all

THE shooting of Danielle Beccan showed Britain's streets are not safe for our young and innocent.
New shock figures show that our children are increasingly at risk from a terrifying rise in gun and knife crime.

In fact it's clear that knives pose the greatest risk to children—and even school playgrounds are no longer safe. It's not just an inner city problem. Our campaign today shows how a leafy Suffolk village is just as likely to be the scene of a schoolyard stabbing.

Education Secretary Charles Clarke is spot-on with his backing for metal detectors in our schools. Both Home Secretary David Blunkett and Met police chief Sir John Stevens are right to support him.

Because as tough firearms laws make guns harder to obtain, knife crime has grown by 600 per cent. Now one in four of all pupils admits to carrying a knife. Parents must have thought they would never see the day when there was a scanner at every school gate.

But knife crime is a hard fact of modern life—and ignoring it won't solve anything. Like random drugs testing in schools, scanners won't be a stigma—they'll be lifesavers. And a sign to parents that their children are in a safe haven.