Exposed: True scale of knife epidemic

Doctors at Glasgow Royal Infirmary say they treat between 700 and 1,100 victims of stabbings and slashings every year, far more than the 400 officially recorded by police.

Dr Rudy Crawford, who leads the GRI team, says the scale of knife crime is massively under-reported because hundreds of injured people refuse to involve the police.

Glasgow was declared the murder capital of the UK last month after new figures showed there were 81 killings last year. The city’s murder rate was 58.7 per million people, double that of London and one of the highest in Europe.

The revelation that the number of knife-related incidents is two to three times higher than the official figure increases the impression that violent crime is out of control. Experts believe the under-reporting of knife attacks is repeated across Scotland, meaning hundreds more casualties than are officially acknowledged.

GRI medics have told Scotland on Sunday they see two to three stab victims every day and that there is about one knife-related death a week in hospitals across the city, the majority at the Royal Infirmary. They estimate only a third to a half of the surviving victims make a complaint.

The GRI’s upper-range estimate of 1,100 knife victims in 12 months is difficult to square with official figures. The police division which covers the hospital’s main catchment area of the east end has recorded 36 knife murders or attempted murders, 99 knifepoint robberies and 269 serious assaults involving knives in the 11 months to the end of November - a total of only 404.

Crawford said that when he compared an official figure of 18 knife-related incidents in Glasgow over Christmas with the infirmary’s own tally it revealed 39 stabbings.

"Probably, the true prevalence is two to three times what the reported statistics show," he said. "Many victims simply do not make a complaint."

Doctors are not under any obligation to report to the police any injuries they suspect are the result of crime. They would have a legal duty to do that only if they believed another crime was going to be committed, such as a revenge attack by a victim.

Former GRI accident and emergency doctor Mike Simpson, who now works at Monklands Hospital in Airdrie, said: "Glasgow people just love their knives. You’ve got your 13-year-olds with switchblades coming out of every pocket."

"You’ve got your hand axes and your machetes. It seems to have started with the razor gangs in the 1960s, and just gone from there."

Chief Superintendent Kevin Smith, who is in charge of Strathclyde Police’s E division, which includes the Royal Infirmary’s main catchment area of the east end, questioned doctors’ estimates of the amount of under-reporting.

He said the hospital’s figures were likely to be boosted by some city centre victims, who ended up at the GRI but did not appear in the E division statistics.

Annabel Goldie, the Scottish Tories’ justice spokeswoman, said: "This is a staggering allegation. It is deeply worrying if the already high levels of violent crime in Scotland are as high as this consultant claims."

The latest figures for Scotland as a whole suggest knife crime is at an all-time high. The number of recorded incidents of handling an offensive weapon, the majority of which are knives, rose 12% from 8,671 in 2001 to 9,691 in 2002.

A spokeswoman for the Edinburgh Royal Infirmary said: "There are cases where patients do not want to involve the police."

A Scottish Executive spokesman said last night: "While we cannot comment on these claims, we regard knife crime as a serious matter of concern. We are committed to reviewing both the law and the enforcement of knife crime."