More facing jail over knife crimes

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There was controversy earlier this year when new sentencing guidelines, due to come into effect on Monday, suggested that magistrates' starting point when sentencing for possessing a knife in a public place should be a community sentence or fine.

Conservatives called for a presumption that anybody carrying a knife should expect a custodial sentence, and police minister Tony McNulty called on the independent Sentencing Guidelines Council (SGC) to reconsider.

Just days before the new guidelines come into effect, the Council has now written to magistrates, telling them that in the current atmosphere of concern over knife crime, they should be looking at much tougher sentences.

The SGC told magistrates that "the guideline has been strengthened... and is likely to result in many more offences (committed by adult offenders) crossing the custody threshold".

It said sentencers should take account of a ruling handed down recently by the Court of Appeal, which said that possession of a knife was "a serious offence and it should be treated with the seriousness it deserves" and that judgments should therefore tend towards the most severe end of the range of punishments available.

This would see first-time offenders who plead not guilty to possession of a knife sentenced to around 12 weeks behind bars. If the knife was carried in "dangerous circumstances" or was used to threaten or cause fear, suspects should be sent to the Crown Court for trial, where they can expect sentences of six months or more if found guilty.

Although more lenient sentences, such as a £500 fine for simple knife possession, will still remain available to magistrates, they are far less likely to be used following the new advice.

The SGC said that the Court of Appeal ruling drew attention to the "recent escalation in offences of this kind and the importance, for the time being, of courts focussing on the purposes of sentencing of reduction of crime (including its reduction by deterrence) and the protection of the public".

Once the current concerns have been overcome, courts will be informed to go back to the original guidelines, and treat community service or fines as the normal sentence for a first-time offence of simple possession of a knife, said the council.