Sharp Facts

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Possession of a knife carries a prison sentence of up to four years even if it’s not used.
If you are caught with a knife it doesn’t matter if it was for your own protection or you were carrying it for someone else – you will be arrested and prosecuted. Self-protection is not a reasonable excuse for carrying an offensive weapon.
The legal definition of an offensive weapon includes anything intended to be used to harm another person, like a sharpened comb. It’s also illegal to carry a ‘disguised knife’ – anything with a concealed blade or sharp point that’s made to look like an everyday object (like a pen, cigarette lighter or lipstick).
There is no ‘safe place’ to stab someone. Get stabbed in the heart and you can loose all of your blood in one minute. But a wound in the arm or the leg can still kill and young people have died from wounds to the leg because an artery was severed.
Knife crime can affect anyone, not just people in gangs. Innocent bystanders can get caught in the midd...

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