Brother of machete attack victim says new knife laws don't go far enough
As new knife laws come into force in England and Wales, Tasha Kacheri has been speaking to one campaigner who thinks it's not enough.
An anti-knife crime campaigner whose brother was murdered has welcomed a change in the law to make some knives illegal to own but says it does not go far enough.
Jon-Jo Highton, 18, was stabbed several times and killed with a machete just yards from his front door in 2014.
It was the second time that the teenager from Preston, Lancashire, had been attacked with a blade in a year.
Since his murder, his brother Byron has been working to get knives off the street, creating a charity in his brother's memory called the JJ effect.
He goes into schools and prisons to warn people of the dangers of knife crime.
"I'm not there for maths and English", he said. "I'm there to stop kids going to prison and being stabbed to death. It is life or death."
Zombie-style knives and machetes similar to the one that killed Byron’s brother are now illegal in England and Wales.
The new legislation closes a legal loophole and makes it an imprisonable offence to own, make, transport or sell a wide range of what are called “statement” knives favoured by criminal gangs.
Byron welcomes the ban, but says more needs to be done to tackle the problem.
He said: "The ban is amazing, taking any knives off the street is amazing but it's like having a pack of 20 fags and removing two fags - the rest of the pack is still deadly and dangerous."
He said "How is it that it takes less time to ban a dog than to ban something that goes through someones body which is predominantly also killing children."
Greater Manchester Police (GMP) are cracking down on people getting knives through 'Operation Concept', it is a joint operation with Border Force.
The weapons are coming from a variety of websites, many based outside the UK.
Byron says young people are hearing the same message from music and social media that glorifies knife crime.
"When you combine social media, violent music which is broadcast all over every single radio station, then you put it together and sell it to kids then you have knife crime."
As part of the JJ effect programme, Byron started the intervention scheme, where he will collect any knives that people want to get rid of.
"It is something that is open 24/ 7", he explains. "Anyone can text 'I've got this knife and I don't want to get in trouble from the police, can you come and get it or I'll bring it to you.'"
He says he has been given around 2,500 knives: "I've taken them off 45-year-old men and I've taken them off kids as young as six."
But Byron believes the collection of knives available is far reaching, so the ban should also stretch further.
There were more than 14,000 crimes involving machetes, swords or zombie knives in England and Wales in 2023, according to police data obtained under the Freedom of Information Act.
Subscribe free to our weekly newsletter for exclusive and original coverage from ITV News. Direct to your inbox every Friday morning.