Poll: Should people who carry knives be given automatic life sentences?
More than 430 crimes involving knives were committed in the West Midlands and Staffordshire last year, new figures have revealed – as a woman whose life was devastated by a fatal stabbing led calls for tougher sentences.
Offences included in the data range from common assault to murder and attempted murder.
Wolverhampton had the highest number of knife crimes of any area in the region in 2013, with 138 recorded between January 1 and December 9.
Those included two attempted murder cases, one murder, two 'other sex' offences, one 'other violence', 65 connected with robberies, as well as 67 wounding offences.
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Among those who have been personally affected by knife crimes is Jade Elwell, whose fiancé Tom Kirwan was fatally stabbed outside a Wolverhampton nightclub in 2012.
The 23-year-old from Oxley had been out with friends at the Uberra Club off the ring road when trouble spilled out on to the street. Miss Elwell, aged 23, today called for anyone found carrying a knife to be jailed. She said: "The only thing that is going to help change is to fight for tougher sentences, even if you are just found in possession.
"They need to be held in custody straight away and be questioned on why they had it." Miss Elwell, from Wednesfield, said those involved in knife crime needed to be aware of the impact it has on others. She said: "
The consequence is actually devastating lives, not just for the day they use it, but the rest of people's lives.
"It's been two years now with Tom and it's still raw. My whole life has just gone. I'm just existing at the minute because nothing is being done."
Figures obtained through the Freedom of Information Act reveal that 433 knife crimes were recorded in the West Midlands and Staffordshire. In South Staffordshire, five knife crimes were recorded between January 1 and December 31, 13 in Cannock Chase, 19 in East Staffordshire, seven in Lichfield, 11 in Stafford borough, 11 in the Staffordshire Moorlands, 67 in Dudley, 66 in Sandwell and 96 in Walsall. Detective Chief Inspector Simon Wallis, of West Midlands Police, said: "One life affected by knife crime is one too many."
