A suspected drug dealer with a history of carrying a blade dodged jail yesterday.
Kyle Davis, 18, was given a suspended sentence despite being caught with cocaine and a knife – his second weapons offence.
The case, which comes amid mounting fury at the number of teenage stab victims, will fuel concerns about soft justice for knife offenders.
Davis laughed as he swaggered out of Birmingham magistrates’ court, taking a selfie on his phone to record his glee at escaping prison.
Only a few miles away three teenagers had lost their lives in 12 days of carnage that police leaders described as a ‘national emergency’.
In London, two boys aged 15 – one caught with a hooked knife and the other with two hidden blades – were let off with youth rehabilitation orders yesterday.
As campaigners condemned the lenient sentences and politicians and police chiefs squabbled over how to deal with the crisis:
- Home Secretary Sajid Javid demanded more money for police and wider use of stop-and-search powers during a charged Cabinet meeting;
- Scotland Yard chief Cressida Dick rejected Theresa May’s claim that there was no link between officer numbers and crime levels;
- The family of girl scout Jodie Chesney, 17, who was murdered in east London, called for tougher sentences;
- The Lebanese aunt of public schoolboy Yousef Makki, 17, who was killed in a leafy Cheshire village, told of her disbelief at his death;
- Boris Johnson said thugs carrying ‘killer’ knives must understand they risked time in jail;
- Defence Secretary Gavin Williamson offered the support of the military to help police tackle knife crime.
Today, Mr Johnson savages Theresa May’s record as home secretary in an article for the Daily Mail, saying her reforms on stop and search ‘turned out to be a very grave mistake’.
