Fed chair says guilty 12-year-olds must serve as a 'catalyst' for tackling knife crime
11 June 2024
West Midlands Police Federation chair Rich Cooke says the shocking case of two 12-year-old boys found guilty of murdering a man with a machete must serve as a ‘potent catalyst’ for policy makers to tackle knife crime.
Shawn Seesahai, 19, died in November following an unprovoked attack on Stowlawn playing fields in East Park, Wolverhampton.
His attackers, who cannot be named for legal reasons, are believed to be the youngest knife killers in the UK, and the youngest to be convicted of murder since James Bulger’s killers in 1993.
Rich said the 'disturbing' murder must serve as a wake-up call to tackle knife crime.
“My thoughts and those of West Midlands Police Federation are with the family of the victim,” Rich said.
“This is extremely disturbing, and if nothing else it must act as the most potent catalyst to would-be policy makers to devote all necessary resources to get a grip of this epidemic.
Shawn Seesahai, 19, died in November following an unprovoked attack.
“It also highlights the fact that machetes are continuing to get into the hands of naive youngsters, and why these companies trading in such weapons need to be stopped.”
Rich hopes the general election is a chance for the next government to make tackling knife crime a priority.
He said policy makers and the criminal justice system take knife crime ‘far too lightly’ as he renewed his call for a ban on the sale of bladed weapons online and the marketing of them to children.
And he said it was ‘disgusting’ that businesses were profiting from the sale of bladed weapons and the ‘devastating human cost’ of knife crime.
Rich said: “We’ve highlighted a number of big online dealers before in relation to some of the murders that have happened in the West Midlands.
“They say a knife isn’t a weapon unless a person makes it one, but the reality is these weapons are marketed towards children and have an uncanny knack of turning up at these types of murders and attempted murders.
“Each murder has a devastating human cost, serious economic costs and fosters generational trauma. For people to make money out of it is disgusting.”
Rich said that one way online distributors market the weapons was to sell them as a collector’s item.
“You go on the website and you have movie weapons, for instance like one in the film Predator,” he said. “It has become an iconic knife and is sold as a movie collector item. That’s another way they market them.
“It’s legal to be sold as a ‘collector’s item’ and no doubt there are some people who want it to put it in a display cabinet, but why does it need to be a real knife that can do actual harm if it’s a replica?”
Now he is calling on politicians who form the next government after the election on 4 July to take action.
“The general election is an opportunity for whoever forms the next government to really do something about it,” he said.
“We need an outright ban on these weapons, and a plain packaging requirement which bans the fancy packaging and marketing of the weapons.”
Rich added: “I don’t think MPs understand the issues. Maybe it’s me not explaining it properly.
“The use of machetes in the agricultural industry gets mentioned as a reason they can’t be banned and I pull my hair out.
The Machete used to kill Shawn was found under the bed of one of the boys.
“If you need a machete to cut your turnips up or to chop branches off a tree, surely there are ways of doing that without subscribing to advertising for Ninja weapons and Rambo knives and all that.
“It’s very flimsy when you set it against the deaths of children and the gang violence we see in cities.”
Rich, who has been a vocal campaigner on knife crime, renewed his call for the courts and the criminal justice system to get tough on sentencing.
“We don’t need any more excuses,” he said. “It’s got to be zero tolerance. If you’ve got a knife there are no get out jail free cards.
“However, the prisons are full. They’re loathe to send an adult to prison, so they’re even more so when it comes to juveniles.
“Policy makers take it far too lightly. The criminal justice system takes it far too lightly.
“It feels like the protection of police officers and innocent members of the public is secondary to keeping them out of prison.”
