Soft sentences give 'wrong message' (From Watford Observer)

Soft sentences give 'wrong message'

8:05am Thursday 5th June 2008

• Print
• Email
• Share

A suspended sentence and a community order handed down to two teenagers caught carrying a seven inch steak knife and a carving knife in Watford town centre "sends out a completely wrong message" about the perils of knife crime says Conservative prospective parliamentary candidate Ian Oakley.

Robert McCann, 19 of Rickmansworth Road, Watford and former Watford schoolboy Bailey Danquah, 18, of Malvern Way, Croxley Green, were given the respective sentences at Dacorum Magistrates Court, after pleading guilty to possession of a bladed article in a public place without good reason.

Police arrested the pair after a call from a boy saying he had been assaulted and threatened that a knife would be used on him, although none was produced by either teenager.

The sentencing follows politicians promising to stamp out knife crime with the maximum sentence for possession of a knife increased to four years imprisonment. However, the reality as in this case is that magistrates' hands are tied with guidelines due for August stating the starting point, if the knife is not pulled out, should be a high level community penalty.

Mr Oakley said: "This sends out completely the wrong message about knife crime at the moment. Everyone is saying that we have got to get knives off the street, but you can still be found with a knife and get a community order or a suspended sentence.

"That is the problem with the rhetoric of politicians. They say they want to get tough on knife crime and yet you can be caught carrying a knife and not go to prison."

In this case the teenagers, who had no previous convictions, claimed they were carrying the blades for protection after receiving threats. And Mr Oakley said this sentence will do nothing to discourage youngsters carrying knives in order to protect themselves.

"They did not show the knife but they were found with knives and it is worrying. If you do not nip it in the bud it could lead to other things.

"If they had not been arrested we could be talking about another stabbing. If the police and courts cannot protect youths by getting these people off the streets then they will start thinking I have to protect myself'."

Just last week Watford Neighbourhood Inspector David Dumbleton said there had been no knife crime in Watford but that it would be "naive to think youths in Watford don't carry knives."

The police launched Operation Twitch in March when two knife arches were brought into the town centre to detect metal weapons as people entered bars and clubs.

Although they would not have done anything to prevent McCann and Danquah, Mayor Dorothy Thornhill said Watford Borough Council, in conjunction with the police were tackling the problem of youths carrying knives.

The mayor does not agree with the view anyone caught with a knife should be imprisoned. "I do not go along with the line that if someone is carrying a knife they should be thrown inside. Locking up young kids that have not done anything with the knives with hardened criminals is not the answer," she said.

"You have got to be able to take things into consideration and I believe in the autonomy of the judiciary to take these decisions on the whole facts."

The view of MP Clare Ward, however, goes against the Sentencing Guidelines Council's decisions due to be implemented this summer, which state the starting point upon conviction after trial for a first time offender should be a community order.

"There is no excuse for carrying a knife. I do not believe people who say they are carrying them for protection. The only way we are going to stop people carrying knives and thinking it is OK for their own protection is if there are harsher sentences."

• Do you think we have gone soft on crime and knife-carriers in particular? Click the comment link below to share your views.

• Print
• Email
• Share