New knife laws will make difference, says victim's sister

Stricter rules for selling knives online and tougher penalties for those who break them will make a difference, the sister of a teenager killed with a ninja sword has said.

The new measures announced by the government will be known as Ronan's Law - after 16-year-old Ronan Kanda who was murdered close to his home three years ago after being stabbed in the back and chest in a case of mistaken identity.

"On the day of my brother's murder, his murderer had no problem with collecting the knives from the local post office," Nikita Kanda told Radio 4's Today programme, adding "no checks" had been made.

It comes as policing minister, Dame Diana Johnson on Thursday pledged all potential avenues will be explored as part of the government's mission to halve knife crime over the next decade.

Ronan was killed by fellow school pupil Prabjeet Veadhesa, after he visited a friend's house to buy a PlayStation controller in June 2022.

A trial heard his attacker, who was also 16, at the time had mistaken him for his friend, their intended victim.

He used a 22-inch sword he had ordered online using his mother's ID to pass security checks.

It was one of nearly 30 knives and machetes he had bought using the same method over several months.

As part of the new rules which are to be introduced in the spring, retailers across England and Wales will be required to report any bulk or suspicious knife purchases to police.

The jail term for selling weapons to under-18s will increase from six months to two years and a new policing unit backed with £1m of funding to monitor for weapons being sold illegally on social media will also be created.

Asked about the plans, his sister told the BBC that having some sort of punishment in place was "better than nothing", adding there needed to be more accountability for "people who are a part of the problem but who are overlooked".

"All I can ever do is reflect on my brother's case, and on the day of my brother's murder, the murderer, he didn't have any problems collecting his knife from his local post office, and the fact that he was under-age, so no checks were performed."

She said: "So I really do think that these, these measures can make a difference, and they will make a difference because it will make it harder."

She described Ronan as the "light of our life, the best brother anyone could ask for".

Since her son's death, Ronan's mother, Pooja Kanda, has campaigned for fundamental changes to the law to make it harder for people to sell and buy knives.

"The online sale of bladed articles played a crucial role in this tragedy. A 16-year-old managed to get these weapons online and sold these weapons to other people. I knew we could not go on like this."

Speaking to BBC Breakfast, Ms Kanda said she "absolutely" believed her son would not have died if the new legislation had been in place at the time of his death in 2022.

"The murderers would not have been able to get the weapons they were able to get so easily. Nobody was able to stop them, and they were just 16," she said.

On the new law she said: "Out of tragedy comes a light. The light we all need." However, she stressed "there's so much more we can do" when tackling the root causes of knife crime.

Introduced as part of the government's Crime and Policing Bill in the spring, the rules are in response to a review by the National Police Chiefs' Council (NPCC) into the online sale of knives.

The changes will also see:

• Increased prison sentences for selling weapons to under-18s for either individuals who have processed a sale or a company chief executive
• Retailers being required to bring in stronger photo identity checks for buyers - both at points of sale and delivery
• A new offence of "possession with violent intent", which will come with a prison sentence of up to four years. This means that even if the weapon is legal, if there is intent to cause violence, it will be a crime
• A consultation on a registration/licensing scheme for online knife sellers

Policing minister Dame Diana Johnson said "nothing is off the table" in regards to knife crime as she described it as "absolutely disgraceful" that retailers were selling knives to under 18s.

Speaking about Ronan's death on the Today programme she said: "There was no check that day when the ninja sword, the 20-inch ninja sword was collected at the post office - nobody checked it."

She paid tribute to his family, who she described as at the "forefront" of bringing the bill forward and said the new rules would acknowledge the "problem" of supply of weapons, rather than just possession, with "proper sentencing".

The Home Office said the new measures would significantly tighten the law, which until now has been less stringent than the legislation covering the sale of alcohol, tobacco, fireworks or even scratch cards.

"It is horrifying how easy it is for young people to get hold of knives online," said Home Secretary Yvette Cooper. "Even though children's lives are being lost, and families and communities are left devastated as a result."

Commander Stephen Clayman, who led the NPCC review into online knife sales, said: "Bizarrely it is harder to buy paracetamol in some respects than it is to buy a knife - that can't be right.

"We want to make retailers more responsible for what they are selling."

The recommendations also require social media companies to be more accountable for the "thousands of knives" that Cdr Clayman said were being sold on platforms.

"They are being quite clever about it in the way they don't overtly sell. But they show all the knives and encourage people to move to a different [online] platform to make the transaction.

"If they are selling knives and we can prove it, we will take legal action and ask for the content to be removed."

The measures are aimed at stopping sellers like Stefan Petrescu from Southampton.

He used Instagram to sell hundreds of knives. Police found receipts which revealed that Petrescu had bulk-bought more than £3,000-worth of knives, which he had then sold online.

Messages from Petrescu's seized phone showed the use of social media platforms to market the knives, with buyers saying they wanted to "shank" (stab) or harm others.

In one video, he wears a black balaclava-style mask and gloves while handling knives, advertising his stock of serrated machetes, knuckle dusters and other blades while drill music plays in the background - including the song "Ready for War".

In October 2024, Petrescu was jailed for three years after pleading guilty to knife-related offences.

The home secretary has said the government is on a "mission" to halve knife crime over the next 10 years.

There were 262 murders involving a knife or sharp instrument in the year to March 2024, according to the Ben Kinsella Trust. Fifty-seven of those killed were under 25.

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