Children are able to buy deadly knives up to eight inches long in the UK, with an alarming number of stores illegally selling the blades to young people with no ID.

An investigation by theMirrorfound that a 16-year-old undercover shopper with no ID was able to get her hands on knives at 15 of the 23 shops she tried – some for as little as £1.30.

The shops, in London, Manchester and Liverpool were breaking the law by allowing the underage shopper to walk out.

READ MORE: Far-right thug carved words 's***' and 'w****' on victim with knife before violent rape

With knife deaths amongst teens in the UK at startlingly high rates, most parents would no doubt hope that shopkeepers were careful and responsible with the sale of the potentially lethal tools.

The Mirror found that the girl, 'Martha', who was two years too young to be buying a knife, could get her hands on one for the same price as a fizzy drink.

The paper reports that most of the knives were purchased from small, independent outlets.

Some of the 15 stores that broke the law however were far larger.

The only kind of blades under 18s are allowed to buy in the UK are pen-knives with a blade under 3 inches.

• 

  Huge humpback whale launches itself onto boat in ‘dangerous’ and 'rare' incident

Knife crime in the UK since 2011 has increased 30%. 27 under 18s were killed with knives in London last year alone.

The Ben Kinsella Trust’s Patrick Green told the Mirror: “It is shocking to see that despite the misery knife crime brings to hundreds of families every year, a large proportion of retailers still ignore the law, and sell knives to teenagers.

“These retailers often get away with a slap-on-the-wrist fine, while families of knife crime victims face a life sentence of suffering. It is time to get tough and put rogue retailers who continually break the law behind bars.”

Ben Kinsella, who the trust is named after, was stabbed to death in London in 2008 aged 16.

Yvonne Lawson, whose 17 year-old-son Godwin was killed in a knife attack in 2010, said: “I am shocked that children can access knives so easily.

“Trading standards need the resources and they need to make this a priority.”

Liverpool city council told the Mirror it was “saddened and disturbed” by the investigation’s findings, while Lambeth Council said: “We thank the Mirror for this investigation. We condemn these sales in the strongest possible terms.”

Manchester City council told the publication: “Test-purchase ­operations have taken place over the past two years with several ­businesses warned when standards fall. The council has and will continue to pursue prosecutions.”

READ NEXT:

• Killer ‘to be hanged on live TV’ after stabbing classmate who rejected him

• Man kills ex-wife after she posted about their marriage problems on TikTok

• 'More than 30' giant green sea turtles found brutally hacked to death on beach

Source: Read Full Article