‘Truly shocking': Dozens of teens found with knives
More than a dozen children aged 13 – including two girls – were found to have such items when searched.
The statistics, analysed by 1919 magazine, indicate that teenagers accounted for almost a third of positive knife searches across all age groups in Scotland.
The Scottish Police Federation's chairman, David Threadgold, expressed concern over an emerging societal trend among younger people, saying the statistics are 'truly shocking'.
Scottish Labour 's justice spokesperson, Pauline McNeill, described the figures as a sign of a 'youth violence epidemic' and called for early intervention schemes to address the root causes.
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Alex Salmond and the truth behind our fallout, by Nicola Sturgeon
In the dining room of my house in Glasgow on April 4, 2018, with just him and me across a table, Alex showed me a copy of the letter he had received from the Scottish government's permanent secretary, Leslie Evans, informing him of the complaints against him. The substance of the complaints, one in particular, shocked me. I felt sick. After appearing to be upset and mortified by the allegations, Alex became cold. He effectively admitted the substance of one of the complaints, but claimed that it had been a 'misunderstanding', for which he had apologised at the time. He made it obvious that he considered the whole process to be illegitimate. He would later claim differently, of course, but it was evident that he wanted me to intervene and to stop the investigation in its tracks or divert it into some kind of siding. I knew that I shouldn't do that. I didn't realise it then, but this decision made the break-up of one of the most successful partnerships in modern British politics all but inevitable. On the day before the Scottish government was due to publish the facts and outcome of the investigation, the story was leaked to the Daily Record. I do not know who leaked it, but it was not me or anyone acting with my authority or knowledge. It crossed my mind many times that it might have been Alex himself or someone acting on his behalf. To those with no experience of the dark arts of media manipulation, I know this will sound preposterous. However, in many ways it would have been classic Alex. I had known him to make these kinds of calculations in the past. If there is damaging information certain to emerge about you and there is nothing you can do to stop it, get it out in a way that gives you the best chance of controlling the narrative. At a stroke, he was able to cast himself as the victim of underhand dealing. As soon as the fact of the complaints had become public, Alex launched a judicial review of the process. As the government's defence was being prepared, it came to light that the investigating officer had engaged in conversations with the complainants prior to her appointment. There was no evidence that the investigating officer had been biased, but the Scottish government had no option but to abandon the case. • Nicola Sturgeon: 'I came perilously close to a breakdown' In Alex's narrative, he wasn't just a victim any more, he was now a vindicated victim. It was also at this point that his animus towards me was cemented. He was reportedly furious that I hadn't demanded the resignation of Leslie Evans. Leslie was the head of the civil service that had 'botched' the process. It was not unreasonable to say that the buck stopped with her. But I knew that, for him, Leslie's resignation was not about accountability. It was about vengeance. He wanted her punished for allowing him to be investigated in the first place. He would then have used her quitting as further 'proof' that he had been a victim all along. When evidence was disclosed in both the aborted judicial review action and his criminal trial in March 2020, a number of text and WhatsApp messages were revealed to him, some between women complainers and others involving SNP staff members. He spun these as evidence of people conspiring to bring him down, rather than simply what they were — messages between individuals who had loyally supported him over many years expressing deep upset at the nature of the allegations against him. In addition, women who considered themselves victims of his behaviour were seeking support and comfort from each other. That he tried to distort and weaponise genuine expressions of shock, in some cases trauma, was truly disgraceful, and it strikes at the heart of why I find it so hard to forgive him. A conspiracy against Alex would have needed a number of women deciding to concoct false allegations, without any obvious motive for doing so. It would then have required criminal collusion between them, senior ministers and civil servants, the police and the Crown. That is what he was alleging. The 'conspiracy' was a fabrication, the invention of a man who wasn't prepared to reflect honestly on his own conduct. This is what I found hardest to come to terms with. He was acquitted of criminal behaviour, but in the course of his defence a picture emerged of behaviour towards women that, on occasion, had been inappropriate. He seemed content during his trial to concede this, to persuade a jury that while he could have been a 'better man', he wasn't guilty of actual offences. What he never did was show any contrition. There was also never the merest hint of concern about the damage he did to the party he previously led. Indeed, it felt to me that he would have rather destroyed the SNP than see it succeed without him. He impugned the integrity of the institutions at the heart of Scottish democracy — government, police, Crown Office. He was prepared to traumatise, time and again, the women at the centre of it all. After the reports of the two inquiries into mine and the Scottish government's handling of the matter had been published, I spoke personally to the two original complainants. I was the first minister during a Scottish government process that had let these women down. It was important to me to say sorry to them directly. It also let me hear first-hand the impact on them of the claims of conspiracy, and the scars they bear as a consequence. For a while I told myself that the bonds between Alex and me would be stronger than his thirst for revenge. Eventually, though, I had to face the fact that he was determined to destroy me. I was now engaged in mortal political combat with someone I knew to be both ruthless and highly effective. It was a difficult reality to reconcile myself to. So too was losing him as a friend. I went through what I can only describe as a grieving process. For a time after we stopped speaking I would have conversations with him in my head about politics and the issues of the day. I had occasional, vivid dreams in which we were still on good terms. I would wake up from these feeling utterly bereft. And now? Before he died, I thought I had reached the point of feeling nothing and that I had come to terms with it, wholly and completely. The emotions I felt on hearing of his death suggested otherwise. Yes, I have made peace with how things are, but it is an uneasy peace. I know I will never quite escape the shadow he casts, even in death. © Nicola Sturgeon 2025. Extracted from Frankly by Nicola Sturgeon (Macmillan £28), published on Thursday. To order a copy go to Free UK standard P&P on orders over £25. Special discount available for Times+ members. Nicola Sturgeon discusses her memoir with Cathy Newman at the Queen Elizabeth Hall, Southbank Centre, London SE1, on August 29;
