The number of repeat knife crime offenders in the North East increased in the past year, with dozens avoiding jail, The Northern Echo can reveal. More than a third (36.8%) of knife offences in the region are committed by people with previous convictions or cautions, new figures show.
Meanwhile, courts are letting dozens of repeat offenders avoid immediate jail terms, with seven in 20 repeat knife offenders hauled before judges walking free from court. That includes some with three or more previous convictions or cautions to their name. It comes as Tanya Brown, whose son Connor was killed with a knife in Sunderland in 2019 and branded the rise “frightening”, said sentences were too lenient and rehabilitation not enough to tackle the scourge of blades.
Connor Brown with mum Tanya. (Image: Contributor) One of Connor’s killers Ally Gordon, who was jailed for three-and-a-half-years for manslaughter but released halfway into his sentence on licence, went on to be jailed again after allowing a childhood friend wanted for murder to lay low in his flat and being caught carrying a knife in Scotland. Tanya, who runs the Connor Brown Trust campaigning on knife crime in her son’s memory, said: “What has he learnt? He hasn’t learnt anything because the repercussions weren’t enough.
“There was clearly no proper rehabilitation for him in the short time he spent in prison when he went on to carry a knife again. Ally Gordon. (Image: Contributor) “There will never be enough ju.