Widow criticises 'zombie' knife compensation scheme after Huddersfield murder

• Video report by Jonathan Brown

A woman whose husband was murdered in their home by teenagers armed with a so-called "zombie" knife has branded a government scheme to compensate suppliers "ridiculous".

Louise Dyson was at home in Huddersfield with Khalfan Seif and their three young children when a gang burst into their home demanding money in January 2023.

She managed to escape with the children, but Mr Seif, 33, was fatally stabbed.

Now, 18 months on, a ban on zombie-style knives and machetes will come into force next week.

The government is offering businesses that stock them £10 a weapon to surrender them.

Ms Dyson told ITV News: "That's just ridiculous. How can you money off something that's killing people. I don't get it."

What is a zombie knife?

So-called zombie knives vary in size and shape.

But they are legally defined in the UK as having a cutting edge, a serrated edge and images or words (whether on the blade or handle) that suggest that it is to be used for the purpose of violence.

According to a freedom of information request, West Yorkshire Police recorded 1,004 crimes in 2023 involving zombie knives or machetes - up from 732 the year before.

Recalling the night her husband was killed, Ms Dyson said her first instinct when the attackers broke in to their home in Springdale Avenue was to protect her children.

She said: "All I was thinking was I need to get my kids to safety. That was literally all that was going through my head."

"As I've got across the road, Khalfans come out. He was obviously in a really bad way and saying he'd been stabbed.

"He was saying he was going to die. From the state he was in I already knew that that was it. But it was horrible."

Mr Seif had suffered a fatal wound to the stomach. In October last year, brothers Amaan and Sahil Ansar, who were both 19, were found guilty of his murder and jailed for life.

A third teenager, 19-year-old Wahaab Saif, was found guilty of manslaughter.

Ms Dyson added: "The way knife crime is now, I'm terrified for my kids when they grow up.

"My children will grow up without a father because of knife crime."

Zombie knives will be added to the list of banned weapons which already includes butterfly knives, Samurai swords and push daggers.

People are being urged to hand over the weapons at designated police stations as part of an amnesty scheme before the ban comes into force on 24 September.

UK company, Sporting Wholesale, which owns the firm Anglo Arms, has handed over 35 thousand zombie knives.

West Yorkshire Deputy Mayor for Policing and Crime, Alison Lowe believes businesses in possession of these weapons should not be "rewarded".

She added: "These businesses ought not to exist in the first place because they are purveyors of death.

"Why would we need big hunting knives, zombie knives, machetes."

ITV News has approached Sporting Wholesale for comment.

The Home Office said the compensation scheme was designed under the previous government, adding in a statement: "Tackling knife crime is a moral mission upon all in society.

"The surrender scheme will mean tens of thousands of these weapons won't get into the wrong hands."