Knife crime a big problem in Shropshire - campaigner

Tim Allin used to be a gang member himself and now works with young people

A Shropshire-based knife crime campaigner has warned knives are becoming a "big problem" in the county.

Tim Allin, who works for the Stay True Project, said he had worked with children as young as 10, adding that knives had become a status symbol.

He said he was recruited into a gang when he was 11 and had been attacked with a knife himself.

He said he now wanted to "prevent anybody else going down that path again".

Mr Allin's comments come after the government announced plans to close "a legal loophole" to ban the sale of so-called zombie-style knives.

He said the carrying of knives had become a symbol of status for criminals and gang-members, in the same way as the cars they drive.

Mr Allin, who said he had a knife held to his throat when he was nine or 10, told BBC Radio Shropshire he was exploited into a gang at a young age.

"At 11 years old I didn't really have a choice because that choice was taken away from me," he added.

But he said when he was in a gang it was only the older teens who would carry knives.

Children as young as 10

The Stay True Project works on all forms of criminal exploitation and through his work with the organisation, Mr Allin said he had spoken to a number of young people involved in knife crime.

"We work with children as young as 10 years old that have been caught carrying a knife and when we sit and talk to them, sometimes they don't know why," he said.

Mr Allin said some simply tell him they put the knife in their bag without thinking about it.

Some children carry them to "look part of a culture that I see on social media," he said.

While he welcomed attempts to crack down on knife crime, he said the ready availability of the weapons made it hard to control.

He said while it gained more media attention from time to time "it's never disappeared", and instead he said education about the consequences of knife crime was the key.