Knife offenders will face jail sentences

Aftermath of a stabbing: Killing of headmaster prompts Home Office to introduce legislation as police step up the hunt

JASON BENNETTO, JAMES CUSICK and JUDITH JUDD

Prison sentences of up to three months and fines of pounds 2,400 are to be introduced for knife carrying offences, according to a confidential Home Office letter obtained by the Independent.

The tougher laws, which are understood to include making the possession of a knife an arrestable offence, follow the murder of the headmaster Philip Lawrence.

It also emerged yesterday that detectives investigating the murder of Mr Lawrence, 48, outside St George's Roman Catholic secondary school, in Maida Vale, north-west London, are targeting a small group of children about the incident. The development came as grieving pupils faced a day of prayer and counselling.

A letter from the Home Office revealed the Government wants to include stiffer penalties for knife carriers in their forthcoming White Paper on sentencing. At present the maximum sentence for unlawful possession of an offensive weapon is two years' imprisonment or an unlimited fine. But many cases are dealt with under a different Act which is easier to gain a conviction but only has a maximum pounds 1,000 fine for carrying "an article with a blade or point in a public place".

A Home Office letter to David Blackey, secretary of the Association of Chief Police Officers' crime committee, and Chief Constable of West Mercia, reveals that the Home Secretary, Michael Howard, would like the lesser sentence increased to a maximum of three months jail or a fine of pounds 2,400.

It also discloses plans to make the possession of a knife an arrestable offence. At present the police have to rely on laws which allow officers to only arrest people if they have "reasonable grounds" for suspected an offence is being committed.

An ACPO spokesman said the police would welcometougher sentences against people who unlawfully carry knifes.

The Prime Minister was yesterday said to be "appalled and shocked" by the killing of Mr Lawrence as it emerged that Gillian Shephard, the Secretary of State for Education, will hold a meeting of all six teacher unions later this week to discuss measures which could be introduced to protect teachers and pupils from attack. Yesterday, she met representatives of the Secondary Heads Association who discussed the general topic of tighter controls on offensive.

John Sutton, the association's general secretary, said they had talked about knives and baseball bats and the prevalence of weapons in schools. "There have always been weapons in schools. What is new is the propensity to use them."

Police involved in the Lawrence murder investigation believe that a gang dispute was the most likely cause of his death. Yesterday, detectives were requestioning the small group of pupils believed to have seen the attempts by the headmaster to help the 13-year-old pupil at St George's apparently being attacked.