KIDS' KNIFE CRIME AT RECORD LEVELS

0 Comments | Sunday Mirror, Oct 12, 2008 | by NICK OWENS

RECORD numbers of children are being arrested for carrying knives.

The amount of 10- to 15-year-olds caught carrying a blade has rocketed by 194 per cent in the last decade.

Ten years ago, 159 children were charged with possessing a knife. In 2006 it was 373.

Those caught with a knife at school has also risen, from 38 to 90. It means one child is arrested at a school in England and Wales for carrying a knife every four days. The figures - obtained by the Lib Dems - also reveal weapon-carrying offences in all age groups rose 60 pc.

But just one in five adults and one in 20 children under 15 are being jailed for knife crime.

Lib Dem Chris Huhne said: "This is a disturbing indictment of a growing knife culture."

Twenty-six teenagers have already been stabbed to death in London since January - the youngest David Idowu, 14, knifed in June.