West Midlands Police hail knife crime fall as new law comes in
The West Midlands said it saw 380 serious youth violence knife offences between April 23 to end March 24, which fell to 309 in the period from April 2024 to the end of March 2025, a drop of 18%.
'Huge amount of work' needed
Separate figures released by the Home Office after the targeted police action in seven high-risk areas showed the West Midlands saw a fall in knife-enabled robbery of 25% in the nine months from October 2024.The overall reduction across all seven areas was 6%.
WMP Chief Constable Craig Guildford said the force had seen "impressive reductions in knife crime", adding: "While it's certainly pleasing, there's still a huge amount of work for policing and wider society to do to tackle this problem."It's part of our ongoing commitment to make the West Midlands a safer place for everyone."The force released the figures as a ban on ninja swords came into force under Ronan's Law - named after Ronan Kanda who was killed in Wolverhampton on 29 June 2022, in a case of mistaken identity.In July 2024, the West Midlands police area recorded the highest rate of knife crime offences in England and Wales, but the force said a new policy had seen increased arrests.By May this year, reported knife crime had fallen by 6% with the region second highest after London.
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One user chillingly wrote: 'My aim is to create a schoolgirl set where she slowly strips.' How to get help EVERY 90 minutes in the UK a life is lost to suicide It doesn't discriminate, touching the lives of people in every corner of society – from the homeless and unemployed to builders and doctors, reality stars and footballers. It's the biggest killer of people under the age of 35, more deadly than cancer and car crashes. And men are three times more likely to take their own life than women. Yet it's rarely spoken of, a taboo that threatens to continue its deadly rampage unless we all stop and take notice, now. If you, or anyone you know, needs help dealing with mental health problems, the following organisations provide support: Another dreamed of a 'paedo version of Sims combined with real AI conversational and interactive capabilities', while others called the vile creators of AI-generated CSAM 'artists'. Shockingly, perverts can now even digitally 'stitch' children's faces onto existing video content - including real footage of youngsters being previously sexually abused. In many cases, girls are the target. 'At the NSPCC, we know that girls are disproportionately targeted, reflecting a wider culture of misogyny - on and offline - that must urgently be tackled,' says Rani. 'Young girls are reaching out to Childline in distress after seeing AI-generated sexual abuse images created in their likeness, and the emotional impact can be devastating.' 'Digital assault' Earlier this year, the UK Government announced plans to criminalise the creation - not just the sharing - of sexually explicit deepfakes, which experts have praised as a 'critical step'. The change in law will apply to images of adults, with child imagery already covered. The Government will also create new offences for taking intimate images without consent, and the installation of equipment with the intent to commit these offences. A Google spokesperson told The Sun: 'While search engines provide access to the open web, we've launched and continue to develop ranking protections that limit the visibility of harmful, non-consensual explicit content. 'Specifically, these systems restrict the reach of abhorrent material like CSAM and content that exploits minors, and are effective against synthetic CSAM imagery as well.' Meta said it has strict rules against content depicting nudity or sexual activity - even if AI-generated - with users able to report violations of their privacy in imagery or videos. It also does not allow the promotion of 'nudify' services.
