Fewer than 1 in 5 people charged with carrying a knife are jailed, police chief reveals

Fewer than a fifth of people charged with knife offences are jailed, according to figures released by Scotland Yard yesterday.

Metropolitan Police chief Sir Ian Blair said he was concerned at how the courts are dealing with knife crime. He ordered his staff to monitor 103 individuals charged with possessing a knife during one week in June.

They found that of 24 youths who had been dealt with in court by July 28, just one was jailed.

Of the 29 adults sentenced by the same date, eight were given custodial sentences, including one man jailed for just a day.

Sir Ian said the figures meant 17 per cent – or fewer than one in five – offenders were being jailed.

There were six suspended sentences, including one for a man who had committed his fifth knife offence.

Two adults were fined and other punishments included community orders, taggings and curfews.

Sir Ian said that those caught with a blade or who are involved in knife violence should expect to be jailed, though he stopped short of demanding that every knife-carrying thug is put behind bars.

'I am not satisfied at the moment that the courts are yet taking sufficient account of community concern around knife crime,' he said.

'I want to make clear that I am not saying everybody who has a knife should be locked up, because the numbers are inconceivable.

'But I do think that we are starting from that position that it is a likely sentence and individual cases will be dealt with individually by the court.

'I cannot criticise individual magistrates about individual cases because I do not know what the facts are.

'But the court needs to take sufficient account of community concerns and, with this set of figures, so far that is not showing through.'

Sir Ian added that the figures present an incomplete picture because the most serious cases are waiting to be dealt with at Crown Courts.

Sir Ian Blair: The Met Police chief has pledged to get tough on knife crime

Senior officers have said teenage knife crime has overtaken terrorism as their top priority in the capital.

So far this year, 21 teenagers have been stabbed to death in London amid growing fears that knife crime is spiralling out of control.

Sir Ian and London Mayor Boris Johnson have pledged to do everything they can to stem the tide of knife attacks among young people.

Almost 1,500 knives have been found during Operation Blunt presearches using portable metal detectors across the city.

Senior officers found that in knife crime hotspots around one in 50 people searched was carrying a weapon. Officers also warned yesterday that young people caught up in group violence could still face a murder charge, even if they were not holding a weapon.

Commander Simon Foy, head of the Met's Homicide and Serious Crime Command, said that of 48 violence trials pending at the Old Bailey, eight involve four or more defendants.

Two recent trials involved groups of defendants, not all of whom physically took part in the attack.

Commander Foy said a recent Ministry of Justice paper includes proposals to make the investigation of a 'group enterprise' easier.

He added: 'Even if you are not the person who strikes out with the fatal blow, we will prosecute you and we will convict you for murder.'