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Children as young as 10 charged with knife crime, Met figures reveal
Martin Bentham, Home Affairs Editor16 Feb 2010
Three children aged 10 were taken to court accused of knife crime offences in London last year, Met figures on juvenile crime show today.
Two of them were charged with carrying out knifepoint robberies, while the other was accused of using a blade in a violent attack.
Eight 11-year-olds were also charged with knife offences.
The disclosure come in figures obtained from the Met under the Freedom of Information Act.
Southwark was the borough with the largest number of alleged knife criminals taken to court.
Figures on the ethnic breakdown of alleged knife offenders in London overall show that 41 per cent were black, with white suspects accounting for 36 per cent.
Asians made up 11 per cent of the total, while people of mixed race accounted for six per cent and Chinese or other ethnic group made up three per cent.
The rest were “not stated”.
The ethnic breakdown varies borough to borough The statistics reveal that, overall, 927 of the 3,237 people proceeded against for knife offences last year were juveniles, equivalent to 29 per cent of the total.
Of these juveniles, 601 were prosecuted for knifepoint robberies, while 308 were taken to court for allegedly carrying out violent attacks using a blade and a further 18 were charged with sex offences committed while using or carrying a knife.
Older juveniles accounted for most of those charged, with 258 17-year-olds, 234 16-year-olds and 202 who were aged 15 taken to court.
There were 24 12-year-olds charged, including 15 accused of knifepoint robberies and nine prosecuted for violent attacks, while 13-year-olds accounted for another 69 of those charged and
14-year-olds a further 129.
Among adult offenders, the largest number of prosecutions was of those in the 18-25 age group, in which 1,032 were taken to court for knife offences, followed by those aged 26-40 who made up 858 of the overall total number of people charged.
A further 393 people aged 41-60 were also prosecuted for knife crime, as were 27 people aged 61 or above.
Among all the older age groups, the bulk of the alleged offending involved violence against the person. For younger suspects, robberies formed the greater proportion.
Separate figures show that Southwark, with 213 alleged knife offenders, Hackney, Newham, Lewisham and Lambeth were the boroughs with the highest number of people prosecuted for crimes involving a blade.
In each borough, black suspects accounted for around half or more of those charged with the proportion ranging from 46 per cent in Newham to 66 per cent in Lambeth.
Southwark's figure was 57 per cent. There were no figures for the conviction rates.
