Children killing children: Inside Greater Manchester’s teen knife crime epidemic
manchestereveningnews.co.ukA 17-year-old boy stands in Manchester's youth court, head bowed and looking sheepish.
His mum is stood next to him, a face full of fear.
He has admitted a number of offences including being caught by police in possession of a six-inch kitchen knife in a public place, namely Heaton Park.
READ MORE: " The only way it ends is death or jail": The fear and anger about stabbings on north Manchester's streets
Asked by the magistrates if there is any 'specific reason' he was carrying a knife the boy mumbles “not really", in reply.
The boy has no previous convictions and is sentenced to a six month Referral Order which requires him to meet with the Youth Justice Service to draw up a contract of rehabilitation.
His mum agrees to pay her son’s costs totalling £107 at a rate of £10 a week and the hearing is over in a matter of minutes.
Outside court, the Manchester Evening News approached the boy and his mum to ask if he would elaborate any further on his offence.
Free from the gaze of the magistrates, the teenager opens up and tells a story which gets to the heart of why knife violence among young boys is soaring in Greater Manchester.
It is a story about the toxic mix of entrenched deprivation, self-perpetuating fear and a high-stakes gang culture inflamed by social media which is driving knife-carrying into many different corners of the region, from the classroom to the bus stop.
In 2019, Assistant Chief Constable of Greater Manchester Police Rob Potts warned that knife crime was no longer just "a London thing".
And while efforts to understand and combat the problem have undoubtedly been scaled up, such as with the launch of the GM-wide Violence Reduction Unit, a Manchester Evening News investigation lays bare the size of
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