Convictions for knife crime rocket by 21%

Published on Monday 15 March 2010 22:10

SCOTLAND's knife crime culture is on the increase with convictions reaching a ten-year high in three separate areas.

• Scottish police forces are having to deal with more knife crime. Picture: TSPL

And in Lothian and Borders the number found guilty is up 21 per cent in the past 12 months alone The Scotsman can reveal.

The increase puts more pressure on justice secretary Kenny MacAskill and his government's policy on knife crime after homicide statistics released last month showed that the percentage of killings carried out with a knife in Scotland was at its highest in five years.

A new analysis of the Scottish Government's criminal proceedings statistics has shown that crimes involving offensive weapons in Grampian, Central and Lothian and Borders have soared, with a 38 per cent increase in convictions across Scotland since the onset of devolution.

Last year, Lothian and Borders saw 431 convictions for handling an offensive weapon, up from 355 during 2007-8. At the same time, convictions in Grampian rose from 162 to 187 and in Central, convictions were up from 132 to 137.

In Strathclyde, Scotland's largest police force area, crimes of handling an offensive weapon rose slightly by 2.6 per cent to 2,348 during 2008-9.

According to the figures, all Scottish forces have witnessed an increase in knife crime since 1999-2000 with convictions for handling an offensive weapon up by 219 per cent in Central, 179 per cent in Grampian and 123 per cent in Northern. Elsewhere, Strathclyde has seen conviction rates rise by 49.9 per cent in the last decade, with a peak rate of 2,591 offences during 2005-6.

Lothian and Borders witnessed a rise of 116 per cent from the conviction rate of 199 at the onset of devolution. The rise, described as "truly shocking" by politicians yesterday, was attributed by police to increasingly robust stop and search policies in operation across the country, as well as an increase in the number of charges brought against offenders.

Yesterday, Mr MacAskill faced more calls to introduce mandatory sentences for handling a knife, as well as drawing criticism over comments he made in his 2008 annual constituency report. According to an extract of that document seen by The Scotsman, Mr MacAskill said knife crime was a west coast problem, "we have so far managed to avoid in the east".

That sparked a stinging rebuke from Labour's justice spokesman Richard Baker, who described his comments as "absurd". "For Mr MacAskill to say that knife crime is only a problem in the West of Scotland when convictions for knife crime are soaring in the streets of his own constituency is absurd and highlights just how out of touch he is with what is actually happening out on Scotland's streets," he said.

"It's high time he woke up to the grave toll knife crime is taking on communities across Scotland and backed Labour's tough plans for mandatory minimum sentences."

Bill Aitken, the justice spokesman for the Conservatives, who is pushing for a two-year minimum sentence, said: "These figures, broken down in this way, are truly shocking and that is why Labour's plans for a six-month tariff for carrying a knife, which after early release would mean little more than a few weeks inside, are woefully inadequate."

But Mr MacAskill described the figures as "absolute nonsense", pointing to figures in the Recorded Crimes statistics that suggested overall knife crime had fallen in Lothian and Borders last year. He added: "The more convictions dealt out to those who carry a knife show that we are taking tougher action than ever before, with police officers acting swiftly to arrest those who carry a knife and our courts convicting them. This tough approach should be a warning to anyone considering carrying an offensive weapon."