People urged to surrender their 'zombie knives' after fatal stabbings

Mothers of stab victims are urging people to hand in their "zombie knives" in a bid to crack down on crime.

Zoe Cook lost her son Byron, aged 22, who was attacked with a baseball bat, a knife and a machete. He was stabbed in the heart at Ilkeston in Derbyshire three years ago.

She said: "It's destroyed us as a family, I've tried to turn my life around and keep strong. My daughter is 13, and still texts her brother telling him to come home."

"I think anything that will get knives off the street is a good thing. But, I don't think people that are carrying them will hand them in."

"However I do think that parents should look around the house, in their children's bedrooms, look wherever you can. If you find it, then you as a parent should take it to the police."

It comes after the Government issued a statement on the Monday 19 August saying that from Tuesday 24 September, it will be illegal to own weapons more than eight inches long, and have either a serrated edge, multiple holes in the blade, spikes or more than two edge points.

Police have introduced a Surrender and Compensation scheme which offers the public £10 for each knife given to designated police stations.

It runs for four weeks from Monday 26 August until Tuesday 24 September where the ban comes into full effect.

People who legally own the weapons can hand them in to police without fear of prosecution.

Pooja Kanda from Wolverhampton also lost her son Ronan to a fatal stabbing in June 2022. She says more bladed weapons need to be included in the ban, if the government is serious about reducing knife crime.

She told ITV News Central: "This doesn't go far enough because it doesn't do much. The knives are still on sale and we need to ban all types of weapons that are available."

"The weapon that took my child's life was a ninja sword. Now that dangerous weapon is still available today. It shouldn't be. That sword should not be available to anyone. We don't have use for that type of weapon. It's not for gardening. It's definitely not a showpiece."

The government told ITV News Central that implementing a ban on zombie-style knives was just the first step in their plan to halve knife crime within a decade and would be closely followed by making ninja swords illegal.

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