Southport survivor's campaign for 'blunt knives' praised by Nottinghamshire police boss

Yahoo

23-05-2025

Nottinghamshire's Police and Crime Commissioner has echoed a Southport survivor's calls for pointed knives to be replaced with blunt ones in an effort to help combat knife crime across the nation. A dance teacher who survived the Southport knife attack, Leanne Lucas, has started a new campaign calling for pointed knives to be replaced by ones with blunt tips after being critically injured during the attack.
Axel Rudakubana, 17 at the time of the attack, has been jailed for a minimum of 52 years after he carried out the murder of three young girls- Alice Aguiar, Dot Stancombe and Bebe King, in an event that shook the country.
In an interview with Sky News, Leanne, aged 36, said it was the pointed tip of the knife that led to her life-threatening injuries in the attack of July 2024.
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The message of the Let's Be Blunt Campaign resonated with Nottinghamshire's PCC, Gary Godden, who stated that if blunt knives were to become the norm in UK households, it would have a "huge effect" on the number of knife crime incidents across the country.
The campaign calls for a national conversation to be had about the possible transition to blunt knives, as the easy access means that life-threatening incidents such as those in Southport could be repeated, as every household has a four-inch or longer knife readily accessible.
PCC Gary Godden said: "I think that knife crime is a specific challenge. Bear in mind that knife crime is generally, those involved or have had an experience with knife crime have been hurt by a knife that is four inches in length; everybody in every single household in the country has a knife that they can get access to, that is four inches long.
"The challenge is how we can change perceptions and behaviour and how we approach prevention in a way that actually makes a huge difference. I have some plans in mind that I am not going to discuss today to really challenge this and make sure that Nottinghamshire is a safe place."
When asked about his support for the new campaign, the PCC said: "It's really interesting. It's not something that you would have thought of two or three years ago. It's a common-sense approach to a national problem. The reality of carrying a knife is guess what, you are probably going to have it used against you or you will use it against someone else.
"The effect of having blunt knives would be huge. If only we could get them into every household in the country, it would be amazing, but that will take time. I think that there are government bans on certain knives coming into place.
"There will be a lot of stuff that we need to do, I have my mind set on a lot of things we need to do, that will really challenge this. At the moment, this is our biggest challenge for safety, and making sure people don't pick up knives and use them."
This comes after Nottinghamshire Police has recently stepped up their response to knife crime in the city, carrying out a determined campaign to curb the increase in knife-related incidents in Nottingham's city centre, after a series of stabbings in March.