Knife crime investigation: Are service cuts to blame for a rise in violence?

• Jonathan Brown reports

Escalating knife violence is resulting in some young people carrying guns around the streets of Huddersfield, an ITV News investigation has found.

In the wake of the conviction of two teenage boys for the murder of 15-year-old Khayri McLean, who was stabbed to death outside his school in Huddersfield last year, more evidence of the dangers facing young people has emerged.

It comes after reports of knife-related crimes increased by 5% in West Yorkshire to 2,325 over the last year - including almost one incident every day in the Kirklees district that includes Huddersfield in 2021/22.

Meanwhile the number of people killed with a knife last year nationally was the highest since records began in 1946. 

One youth, who spoke under the condition of anonymity, told ITV News that he carries a gun around the town's suburbs because he's previously been attacked with a knife.

"If I haven’t got it and I bust that corner and I see someone I’ve got a problem with or they’ve got a problem with me then how am I going to defend myself," he said. "The police aren’t going to save me, I’m going to save myself."

One woman, who served prison time for drug offences, said young people are being targeted for exploitation by criminal gangs involved in county lines drug dealing.

Lisa, who now gives talks to children in schools in the area, said: “It’s fast money and it can help pay your mum's bills. They’re vulnerable, it’s the vulnerable ones that get picked. In reality I think when they commit these crimes and they go to court they realise the severity of it and they don’t want to go to jail in the end."

The mother of 14-year-old Jamie Marshall, who took his own life in 2019 hours after being threatened with knife violence over social media, has urged police to do more to protect young people. Nobody was ever charged in connection with his death.

Anne Marshall has been campaigning for change via TikTok. "The police admit there is a problem, that’s the biggest start," she said. "We are losing young people either to crime and prison or to death because they’re stabbing each other, they’re killing each other, or out of fear, like my son, they’re taking their own lives."

Meanwhile there has been criticism of the services available to young people in the area after Kirklees Council shut down all of its youth clubs due to funding cuts in 2017.

Provision at nine venues across Kirklees was closed, leading to the formation of the Kirklees Youth Alliance (KYA) non-profit group which coordinates around 100 voluntary youth organisations in the area.

Susan Greenwood, KYA chief executive, said: “There are huge gaps in provision of youth services especially in some of our most deprived communities especially where the provision of a youth club could make the difference between young people reaching their potential in a positive way and them going down a negative route."

West Yorkshire Police and Kirklees Council meanwhile say they are working together to tackle violent crime through interventions in schools, different forms of youth work and proactive knife patrols through what has been dubbed Operation Jemlock.

Mel Meggs, director of children's services at the council, said: “We’d always want to do more and if the government were able to provide long term funding but I think it would look very different if we were designing it now than it would if it was 10 years ago because we know young people want something different now their lives have changed."

The police say the number of knife crime arrests has gone down in West Yorkshire in recent years and that an increasing proportion of the incidents it sees are not gang-related.

 “I think we will admit there is an issue we’re trying to understand and in doing that we’ve got to understand how we can tackle it and it can’t all be about the police, it really isn’t all about that," Detective Superintendent Jim Griffiths, district commander for Kirklees, said. "The last thing we want to do is criminalise all young people. It's about education and communities coming together."

It comes as West Yorkshire Police faces a £20.6 million funding shortfall for the coming year.

Alison Lowe, deputy mayor for policing and crime for West Yorkshire, defended the work of the region's force, adding: "Clearly any weapons that are being carried by young people we need to address. We have been cut by £165 million since 2010, we are doing the best we can with the resources we've got. We have been identified as an outstanding force by His Majesty's Inspectorate of Constabulary just last year but ultimately it's about all of us working in partnership together."

In response to suggestions that more needs to be done to support councils and the police, Policing Minister Chris Philp MP told ITV News: "By the end of March we will have more police officers across England and Wales than we've ever had at any point in our country's history. We're also continuing our investment programmes in hotspot policing and in diversionary activities to make sure young people who are at risk of getting on to the wrong path are given constructive alternatives."

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