Region's knife crime to be debated in ;parliament

West Bromwich MP Sarah Coombes has secured a debate in Westminster Hall this afternoon to discuss the prevention of knife crime in the West Midlands.

The region has the highest rate of knife crime in the West Midlands, with 178 offences committed per 100,000 people.

In September, legislation was finally passed to ban so-called zombie knives, following a long campaign by the Express & Star which won the newspaper a prestigious national award.

But Pooja Kanda, whose 16-year-old son Ronan was brutally murdered by two teenagers near his home in Wolverhampton, said the new laws did not go far enough. 

The Criminal Justice Act, introduced by the previous Conservative government, does not yet extend to the online sale of so-called 'Ninja' swords of the kind used to kill Ronan, who was attacked in a case of mistaken identity.

Mrs Kanda and her daughter Nikita are calling for a total ban on the online sale of all knives. 

The new Labour government has pledged to extend the legislation.

The Express & Star has highlighted the shocking number of lives cut short by knife crime in the region.

One of the most shocking was the murder of 19-year-old Shawn Seesahai in Stowlawn playing fields, just north of Bilston, in November 2023. The perpetrators were just 12 years old, making them the youngest children ever to be convicted of knife murders in the UK. The motive for the attack is unknown. 

Other notable knife deaths include those of Jetmir Pemaj, 33, stabbed in Wolverhampton in July, 2023, Akeem Francis-Kerr, 29, knifed to death in a Walsall nightclub, Bailey Atkinson, 20, who was stabbed to death in Walsall town centre, Jack Lowe, 18, stabbed in Darlaston town centre, and Cody Fisher, 20, who was stabbed in a nightclub.

Last year, the Express & Star produced a moving documentary Grief, featuring the stories of Mrs Kanda and Mark Brindley from Walsall, whose son James was murdered in 2017.