Lockdown Blamed as England, Wales Knife Deaths Reach Record Level

A forensic investigator recovers knives after man was arrested on Whitehall in Westminster, central London, on April 27, 2017. (Toby Melville/Reuters)

More than 280 people in England and Wales lost their lives to homicide with a bladed instrument—mostly knives—between April 2021 and March 2022, the highest number since records began in 1946, according to a report by the Office for National Statistics (ONS).

The number of homicides rose by 19 percent, to 282, over the previous year. The increase included an 18 percent rise in the deaths of young men, with the number of male victims aged 16 to 17 years jumping to 24 from 10.

One of those teenage victims was Levi Ernest-Morrison, 17, who was stabbed to death in the Sydenham district in London, after being chased by a gang armed with knives and a machete.

Alex Sprules, 17, was jailed for life for murder; Tyreese Ulysses, 19, was sentenced to 13 years for manslaughter; and Ulysses’s mother, Nichola Leighton, 36, also was jailed for life for murder. During trial, jurors heard that Leighton was outraged by Ernest-Morrison and his friends banging on her front door looking for Ulysses; she then drove him and Sprules to hunt down the group.

Undated images of 17-year-old Levi-Ernest Morrison (L), who was stabbed to death by Alex Sprules (R), who was jailed for life for murder, in Sydenham, London, on April 10, 2021. (PA/Metropolitan Police)

The figures showed 177 of the knife homicide victims were white—an increase of 36 compared with the previous year—and 59 were black, including almost 50 percent of whom were aged 16 to 24.

Black people had higher rates of victimisation, the ONS said. “The average rates per million population were around four times higher for black victims than white victims or victims of other ethnicities,” it said.

The report did not analyse the ethnicity of perpetrators, as many of the homicide cases have not yet come to court.

The ONS report pointed out that knives and machetes were used in 75 percent of teenage murders compared with just 40 percent of adult homicides.

Patrick Green, chief executive of the Ben Kinsella Trust, an anti-knife crime charity, blamed the COVID-19 pandemic and the lockdowns for making young people feel more “vulnerable.”

Green said: “As we emerged from COVID restrictions and those restrictions were lifted, we were seeing more evidence of young people made more vulnerable by COVID. Gangs are particularly good at picking up on vulnerabilities, are quick to pick them up and indeed lure young people and exploit them in criminal acts. We think there could be a link there.”

Green said he had carried out education workshops in London and Nottingham and had seen a “notable difference” in interactions with young people after the pandemic.

‘Some Feel Less Secure in Their Community Spaces’

“Some feel less secure in their community spaces, more worried,“ he said. ”We know that fear is a factor ... in terms of carrying a knife. It’s one of the motivations. They feel safe carrying a knife and that alleviates the fear.”

Green said there are “a range of drivers for knife crime that reach deep into our society.”

“We’ve got to not only tackle drugs and gangs, we’ve also got to tackle school exclusions, we’ve also got to tackle mental health provisions for young people,” he said.

Bruce Houlder, founder of Fighting Knife Crime London, said the rise in male teenage knife victims is “highly disturbing.”

“The long-term failure of all governments in the last few decades to get to grips with social deprivation and the loss of hope among many young people needs to be heeded. As a nation, we need to be ashamed that it has come to this,” he said.

In March 2022 Tyler Hurley, 16, was stabbed to death with a zombie knife on a bus in Chadwell Heath, east London.

His killer, Carlton Tanueh, 18, was jailed for life for murder. The trial heard that Hurley and his friends had uploaded a music video to YouTube mocking a number of Tanueh’s friends.

“Homicides, knife, and gun crime continue to fall in the capital, bucking the national trend,“ a spokesman for the mayor of London said. ”However, the mayor is clear that one death is one too many and the level of violence in London remains too high.

“That’s why he continues to take action by investing in policing, expanding neighbourhood policing teams, and investing record amounts in early prevention and support programmes for young Londoners through London’s Violence Reduction Unit as we work to build a safer London for everyone.”

The ONS analysed data held by the Home Office Homicide Index, which contains detailed information about each killing recorded by police in England and Wales.

It said “kicking or hitting” accounted for 116 homicides—17 percent of the total—and “strangulation or asphyxiation” was the cause of 14 percent of murders in which women were the victims.

There were 28 homicides by shooting, seven fewer than the previous year and 30 percent lower than a decade ago.

PA Media contributed to this report.