Ryan Passey: First knife bin installed in Stourbridge after family campaign

Ryan Passey died in 2017, while on a night out in Stourbridge

A weapon surrender bin has been installed in a town where a man was fatally stabbed during a night out in 2017.

Ryan Passey, 24, died from a single stab wound to the heart at Chicago's in Stourbridge.

A metal knife bin has been put in Duke Street after support from Mr Passey's family, West Midlands Police said.

"I do think it will help - anything to help these youngsters," Ryan's father Adrian Passey said.

"If it is just one knife taken off the street, at least we are seeing the bin would work."

A 19-year-old man, who admitted stabbing Ryan Passey, was cleared of murder and manslaughter in 2018.

Kobe Murray told jurors at his trial he had "pushed out" during an altercation in defence and had not intended to use the knife.

In January, it was announced an independent review was to be conducted into the force's investigation into the stabbing, which the Justice for Ryan campaign described as a "big step forward".

The rollout of the bins is part of work by police and crime commissioner (PCC) Simon Foster, with knife crime more than doubling across the force area since 2012, West Midlands Police said.

Ryan's father Adrian Passey and his step-father Phil Ryan both support the knife bins

Two other bins were also set up in Chelmsley Wood Shopping Centre and St Peters Church, in Wolverhampton, on Thursday, taking the total to 23 across Birmingham, the Black Country and Coventry.

Tom McNeil, West Midlands Assistant PCC, said: "These bins are just one measure we are taking to get knives off our streets.

"The bins are providing people with a legal and safe way to dispose of knives which they shouldn't be carrying.

"Every knife posted into a surrender bin is potentially a life saved."