Campaigner backs Express and Star anti-knife crime campaign

And Jason Connon is hoping the Government will take action on two fronts – making it more difficult to to buy blades and bringing in restrictions on the use of the self defence plea in court.

Mr Connon has campaigned on behalf of Ryan Passey, who was stabbed to death in the then Chicago's night club, Stourbridge, with the sixth anniversary being marked on Sunday with a Ride for Ryan charity motorcycle event. A minute's applause for the keen footballer was due to be held before Dudley Town's FA Cup game on Saturday – the team where Mr Connon was once joint manager.

A 19-year-old man was found not guilty after a trial in February 2018 but detectives have now launched a re-investigation into his murder after an independent review was carried out.

Mr Connon said: "The weapon that was ultimately used to kill Ryan was brought at a shop that sells guns and knives alongside bike accessories.

"We are calling for more legislation to make it harder to pick up these knives from shops and online and it needs an overhaul of the legislation to bring this in.

"There is a startling statistic we uncovered that in 2022 more young men lost their lives to knife crime than have been killed in terrorist attacks in their average lifetime.

"According to government statistics for the year ending March 2022 there were 45,000 offences involving a knife or sharp instrument in England and Wales, nine per-cent higher than 2020-21.

"What we have found is when there has been a major incident such as Hungerford or Dunblane the government acts quickly on bringing in legislation to restrict the sale of the weapons used.

"Whilst with recent knife crime it might be a spate of incidents rather than a mass one, everybody's life is worth the same and in recent years it has been young people who are being killed – we share the pain and tears of their parents and it needs legislation to prevent it happening so much.

"We back the campaign by Ronan's family 100-per-cent. What happened to Ronan was awful as was that of Joseph Riches in Stourbridge and others in the West Midlands in recent weeks."

He called for the plea of self defence to be restricted by law and said: "If you go outside and carry a knife in public then stab someone it is currently too easy to say you were acting in self defence.

"There is no need to carry a knife in a public place and too many young men are using the excuse of self defence when it has no meaning as they are not in danger from someone else.

"Only by tightening up laws, producing longer sentence and educating young people about the effects of knife crime will we see the recent statistics decrease."

Joseph Riches died in Stourbridge twon centre last month when attacked with a machete – four teenagers were charged with his murder.

And the latest knife crime incident in Wolverhampton saw Jetmir Pemaj stabbed to death just over a week ago in Whitmore Reans – a 24-year-old man remains in custody charged with his murder.

Prime Minster Rishi Sunak visited the West Midlands last week and said they were putting an enhanced number of police officers on the street and enhancing their stop and search powers.

He said investment in youth services is also a deterrent.