We find how children get hold of knives in London – and it’s not from the dark web

It is not immediately obvious why Bethnal Green is the front line in the fight against knife crime.

But if you look closely enough, you will see the signs.

Corner shops, once where you might go and pick up some milk, the papers and a packet of 20. Now they sell knives – and not just little Swiss Army knives; they are large kitchen knives.

The shops might argue that they are dealing with supply and demand, but with knife crime claiming the lives of 52 young people in a single year (14 of whom were under 16), more clearly needs to be done.

Metro went along to the east London borough with two 16-year-olds and the Met Police to see just how easy it is for them to buy knives.

Operation Sceptre

We visited four shops in Bethnal Green – retailers known to police for either failing previous test purchases or refusing to sign up to the Responsible Retailer Scheme.

The two volunteer police cadets, who had been measured to make sure they do look reasonably under 18, appeared jittery.

One told me: ‘It’s hard to see what police and schools are actually doing about knife crime. At least we can say, we are trying as well.’

They have skin in the game – have seen stabbings and gang crimes in their own schools.

With a determined purpose, they walked in each shop one by one to see if they could buy knives.

‘Some just see it as a game’

As I pretended to browse through some Princess Charlotte mugs in the first shop, it appeared as though they were going to be successful. The shopkeeper took down a knife and went to ring it through the till.

It was only at the last second that they asked for ID.

The teenagers left the store, but we heard staff members gather round, shake hands and say things like ‘well done boy’ and ‘congratulations’. It appeared as though they knew it was a test.

Christian Dalley from Trading Standards said for some it appears to be a game. ‘But now we’ll make sure we go there again’, he added.

‘Just keep it out of your jacket when you walk out’

The next two shops passed the test with flying colours, but the fourth shop failed miserably.

What’s worse, the only time the cadets were stopped was when staff advised them to put the knife into a plastic bag or hide it under a jacket.

When Trading Standards pounced, shop staff refused to shake their hand before being given a prosecution notice.

‘Our plan is working’

So is the crackdown actually helping?

With an 11% drop in homicides and a doubling in the number of knives taken off the streets, police seem to think so.

Detective Superintendent Vicky Tunstall told Metro: ‘Knife crime in Tower Hamlets has gone down by around 75%, and we want to keep it that way.

‘We work with retailers – not against them – to keep people safe. But it means checking on the shops where we have intelligence that all is not the way it should be.’

Get in touch with our news team by emailing us at webnews@metro.co.uk.

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