Police must act now to stop knife crime becoming “a fact of life” in London, an MP said today following the capital’s first teenage stabbing death of 2016.
Labour’s Wes Streeting made the call after his constituent Charles Kutyauripo was killed at the weekend.
Charles, 16, had been at a birthday party in east London with around 100 other young people when he got into an argument with four male youths, one of whom stabbed him.
Mr Streeting said: “My heart goes out to the family and friends of Charles Kutyauripo. Such events are, thankfully, rare in our community, which makes the senseless death of this 16-year-old boy even more shocking.
“Knife crime in London rose last year and we can’t afford to be complacent where children’s lives are at stake.
“It’s time for a renewed focus on knife crime by the Metropolitan Police and both the outgoing and incoming Mayor of London to avoid a return to the days where knife crime became a fact of life in parts of London.”
Both Tory and Labour candidates in the forthcoming mayoral election have made tackling knife crime central to their campaigns.
Charles’s death is the first murder of a teenager in the capital this year, Scotland Yard said.
Nineteen teenagers were murdered in London in 2015, of whom 15 were stabbed to death.
Interactive image: The 15 London teenagers stabbed to death in 2015
Two others were strangled, one suffered head injuries and one died from “other” causes.
Anyone with information is asked to call police on 020 8345 3862 or Crimestoppers on 0800 555 111.
