An eight-year-old boy was caught hiding knives “as a form of protection” near his home after his mum reported him to police in Leicester.
When the authorities were informed, the primary school pupil agreed to take a support worker to six locations near his home where he had stashed the weapons, including a local football pitch.
Police said some of the knives were blunt and could cause little damage, but others were more dangerous.
The boy’s mother said: “He would take a butter knife from the kitchen drawer
and hide it somewhere or put it in his bag. He’d had a fight with another boy
and his response was to try and protect himself.”
She said fears over “where his actions could lead” pushed her to contact the police.
The family were put in touch with e2 Training, which runs a scheme to help young people change their attitudes towards knife crime.
The boy said he fell out with some other children in the past, which led him to steal the knives in the first place, but that he now felt “less angry” after talking to support workers.
“I know now that knives hurt people and you will go to prison if you carry one,” the youngster added.
Bethany Wallace, the e2 support worker who helped with the case, said: “Sometimes youngsters start to carry knives because of learned behaviour,
they’ve seen others around them do it and so they emulate this, our work
aims to break this cycle.”
The boy’s mother told the BBC: “Without Beth he would end up dead one day or in prison.
“He’s eight, he had no idea what he was doing. The way things are at the moment, he could have ended up dead.”
The news comes as the Leicestershire Police and Crime Commissioner announced the recipients of a new £100,000 fund to help deal with knife crime.
The money comes from forces reserves and PCC Lord Willy Bach said he was joining calls for Prime Minister Theresa May to put 10,000 extra police officers on the street.
He also said the government should “begin reinvesting in critical youth diversionary services which have been drastically cut during the years of austerity”.
There is heightened pressure on politicians to tackle a “growing emergency”, with nine teenagers having lost their lives as a result of knife crime since the start of the year.
Last week new NHS data reflected a 93% increase in the number of young people targeted by knives – up from from 180 admissions in 2012 to 347 last year.
