By Clara LALANNE
LONDON, Oct 20, 2023 (AFP) – Elianne Andam was headed to school like any other teenager in London last month when she was stabbed to death, becoming the latest victim of rising knife crime in England and Wales.
The 15-year-old suffered a “brutal attack” in Croydon, south London, shortly after she and her friends had stepped off a public bus on a Wednesday morning, prosecutors have said.
A 17-year-old boy arrested nearby just over an hour later will stand trial for her murder next April.
One of the latest tragic cases of teen-on-teen violence in the British capital, it has become an increasingly common problem nationwide over recent decades.
A few days after Andam’s death, 16-year-old Taye Faik died in Edmonton, north London, following another knife attack.
He was the 14th teenager to be killed with a blade in the city this year.
The UK government, and mayors in some of its biggest cities and regions, have repeatedly vowed to tackle the persistent scourge of youth violence, but appear to be failing.
Between 2012 and 2022, the number of knife and offensive weapon offences amongst children aged 10-17 increased by 19 percent across England and Wales, according to the Ministry of Justice.
That compared with an eight percent increase among adults.
– ‘Social issue’ –
With the sale of guns strictly controlled in Britain, teenagers intent on violence typically turn to blades, including machetes and so-called “zombie” knives.
Inspired by horror films, they often have one smooth blade and one serrated edge, and feature graphics or text on the blade or handle glorifying violence.
Possessing them has been illegal since 2016, but some manufacturers have managed to evade this quasi-ban by altering their design.
The government unveiled plans in August to outlaw them entirely and give police more powers to seize the weapons, which it said “seem to be designed to look menacing with no practical purpose”.
The new legislation will also increase the maximum penalty for their “importation, manufacturing, possession and sale” from six months to two years.
However, machetes and zombie-style knives can be bought with relative ease for less than £50 ($60) on social media platforms like TikTok or Snapchat, circumventing online age restrictions, according to anti-knife crime campaigners.
They urge more focus on the roots of the problem.
“Knife crime isn’t just a law-and-order issue, it’s a social issue,” Patrick Green, president of the Ben Kinsella Trust, told AFP.
The anti-knife crime charity is named after a London teenager murdered in 2008.
“When you start to unpick knife crime, you start to look at social deprivation, poverty, the lack of social mobility, mental health probation for young people,” Green said.
– ‘Awful weapons’ –
Youth knife violence is more prevalent in Britain than many other European countries, he noted.
“It’s difficult to determine why exactly,” Green added.
London mayor Sadiq Khan’s office blamed the austerity policies of successive Tory governments in power since 2010, which it argued have “decimated youth services” in the capital and beyond.
As many as 130 centres offering sports and arts activities in the city have closed over that period, its statement noted.
The pandemic and the country’s worst cost-of-living crisis in a generation, driven by decades-high inflation, are also seen as contributing to the problem.
Following the recent knife crime deaths in the capital, the Labour mayor urged the Conservative government in a letter “to speed up the legislation so we can ban these awful weapons as soon as possible”.
“The proposals also need to be toughened up to close the loopholes that could still allow the sale of these weapons,” Khan added.
He also wrote this month to London’s 500 secondary schools reiterating that wand metal detectors to screen pupils for weapons were available, as well as police officers to deliver knife crime prevention talks.
His opposition Labour party — well ahead in polls for over a year — has pledged to spend up to £100 million if it wins power in an election expected next year on a “Young Futures” programme.
It would fund new youth mentors and mental health hubs in every community, youth workers in schools set up for troubled students and hospitals, alongside wide-ranging public sector reforms.