Community take stand against knife crime in city
BBCA peaceful demonstration has been held in Nottingham as people call for action following a series of knife crime incidents in the city.
Campaigner Marcellus Baz, founder of anti-crime youth charity Switch Up, organised the event which was held in Old Market Square on Saturday.
A stabbing in the city's Primark store took place on 23 February, a machete was found after reports of a fight on Lower Parliament Street four days later, and a 17-year-old boy was taken to hospital following a stabbing near Nottingham Castle the next day.
Community leaders, campaigners and other residents came together to take a stand against knife crime, aiming to prevent further tragedy.
The mother of Danny Castledine, a man from Mansfield who was stabbed to death on a trip to Amsterdam, attended the event.
His son sustained 44 wounds near the Singel canal in the early hours of 1 June 2022 after stopping in the city with a friend on the way to a music festival in Belgium.
A Belgian national was jailed for 14 years after he was found guilty of manslaughter following a trial in a Dutch court in January last year.
Alison Castledine said education was important and said in schools children needed to be taught "to be responsible citizens".
She said: "They do need to know the facts - they are not innocent children.
"They are watching YouTube, they are on TikTok constantly, they are seeing all of this around them, they are not having the facts.
"Every child should be learning about this. Until we get those responsible citizens, all the other stuff is not important."
Chloe Castledine said her brother Danny would never have been in a fight, or carried a knife, "but it still happened to him".
"Knowing it can happen to anyone. That is what is the scariest thing," she added.
Zoe Cooke, who has built a legacy around knife crime prevention since her son's death in 2021, also attended the event.
Byron Griffin was stabbed to death in Ilkeston, Derbyshire, and four men were jailed for his murder after a trial.
Mc Cooke told the BBC she hoped the event would make people pay attention.
"If people are talking, then hopefully it will make people stand up and listen which is what we need," she said.
"We need people to realise we have a problem on our hands and something needs to be done."
Joining campaigners and people affected by knife crime was Nottingham City Council leader Neghat Khan, who said the event was about everyone working together to tackle the issue.
She added: "I will be looking at who we give funding to, what we have been doing all these years - is it working or not?
"Knife crime is falling, but obviously falling isn't good enough."
Nadia Whittome, MP for Nottingham East, said: "It's so important that our community comes together, as we have this morning, to raise our voices against the scourge of knife crime and for the real solutions that our young people need.
"That means investing in our young people, having a zero-tolerance policy on knife crime but also make sure we are tackling our root causes."
She also called for more support for schools and youth services, as well as investment in "our criminal justice system so that people who do perpetrate that violence are brought to justice swiftly".
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