Tougher sentences for knife crimes pleads victim's mother

Jan 25 2008 by Paul James, The Journal

A NURSE whose son was stabbed to death last summer in Gateshead yesterday broke her silence to defend his memory and call for tougher sentences for knife attacks.

Freda Wilson lost son Steven after he was stabbed twice in the chest and three times in the back by Philip Curry in June last year.

Following a fight with Curry on June 23 outside the Ship Inn in Felling, Mr Wilson, 25, armed himself with an axe and went to Curry’s house with a relative who was carrying a baseball bat.

Curry armed himself with two knives, walked out of his home in Leam Lane Gardens, Wardley, and repeatedly stabbed Mr Wilson, a self-employed tiler who lived with his family in nearby Whitemere Gardens.

Mr Wilson was rushed to hospital but surgeons couldn’t save him, and he died surrounded by his close family.

Just two weeks after his death, Mr Wilson’s sister Julie, 34, also a nurse, gave birth to a baby boy, Luke, who would have been his first nephew.

Yesterday Mrs Wilson, who has been unable to return to work since her son’s death, spoke out to support calls for tougher sentences for knife crime and to speak up for her son.

She said she had just brought herself to read witness reports of the harrowing incident.

Her pleas follow a series of high-profile stabbing incidents in the North-East, including Monday’s sentencing of teenager Billy Dunwoodie, who was given life imprisonment for stabbing best friend Shane Jackson 55 times with a kitchen knife while in a drunken rage.

Mrs Wilson admitted her son had been wrong to confront Curry, but said his attacker’s aggression amounted to more than just self-defence. Curry, 28, who was sentenced to 18 months in prison in December, may be out within two months, having now served around seven months of his sentence for manslaughter, a plea accepted after he denied murder.

Newcastle Crown Court heard in December how Curry, who was holding his four-year-old son and whose partner was also present, initially tried to persuade the men to leave, but grabbed the knives when his pleas were ignored.

Judge David Hodson said it was clear Curry must have had an intention to inflict serious harm, but accepted the defence claim it was “the clearest case of provocation there could be”.

The court heard that after being struck three times by glancing blows from the axe, Curry repeatedly stabbed Mr Wilson, who collapsed in the street and died later in hospital.

Mrs Wilson, 57, who is married to David, 55, said: “I think the sentence should fit the crime.

“I know there was provocation, but there has to be a cut-off point when somebody keeps on stabbing. Steven wasn’t a thug. He wasn’t a trouble-maker. He was wrong to go there, but he was slaughtered.”

Mrs Wilson said her son had regular hospital treatment for a detached retina in both eyes and believes his anger was fuelled in the earlier fight because his eyes had been targeted. In court it was speculated that their cousins had been involved in a dispute some 18 months previously.

Mrs Wilson, whose other daughter Sharon, 33, is a hairdresser, added: “I don’t think when people pick up a weapon they have any idea of the damage it could do. I hope Steven wasn’t going to use that axe. I don’t know where he got it from.

“But he has been portrayed as the villain from the word go. This lad could have stopped it at any point. The force of the knife fractured one of his ribs.

“Every weekend you pick the paper up and somebody has been stabbed. It’s horrendous. If people are getting sentenced to 18 months, what’s the deterrent?”

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Rise in drug and gun crimes

THE Government was accused of failing on violent crime last night as new figures showed a rise in drugs offences and a 4% rise in gun crime.

Official figures recorded by police in England and Wales said there were 10,182 firearms offences in the year to September, compared with 9,755 in the previous 12 months.

Separate statistics showed the number of recorded drug offences jumped 21% in the third quarter of last year.

The wider picture was better news for the Government, with overall recorded crime falling by 9% to 1.24m offences from July to September, compared with the same period the previous year.

Recorded crime figures showed the number of drug crimes was 55,700, up 9,500 on the same period in 2006.

Violence against the person fell by 8% and robbery by 17%, the figures reported. The firearms figures showed there were six fewer gun-related deaths in the year – 49 compared with 55 – and serious injuries were down 16% to 368.

But a 4% rise in slight injuries to 2,728 and 6% increases in both threats and non-injury incidents led to a 4% rise overall.

Shadow home secretary David Davis said: “These latest official figures show that Labour is failing to combat both violent crime and its causes.

“Violent crime is fuelled by drugs and Labour’s chaotic and confused policy on drugs.”

Home Secretary Jacqui Smith said: “I am particularly pleased that the risk of being a victim of crime is now at a historically low level.

“In 2008, we will tighten our grip on violence and anti-social behaviour, working with police and local partners.”

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Crime falls in Northumbria

NORTHUMBRIA Police yesterday released figures for April to December last year, showing a 16.7% reduction in overall crime over the same period the previous year.

Other figures show:

• Total violent crime: 2006, 20,405; 2007, 16,350; down 19.9%

• Violence against the person: 2006, 11,257; 2007, 9,558; down 15.1%

• Robbery: 2006, 825; 2007, 612; down 25.8%

• Burglary, house: 2006, 4,859; 2007, 3,654; down 24.8%

• Total vehicle crime: 2006, 11,833; 2007, 9,749; down 17.6%

• Criminal damage: 2006, 27,405; 2007, 22,086; down 19.4%

• Total drug offences: 2006, 3,755; 2007, 3,450; down 8.1%

• Gun crime: April-Nov 2006, 92; April-Nov 2007, 82; down 10.9%

Deputy Chief Constable David Warcup said: "The figures presented by the Home Office show the position up to September last year. Our latest figures, however, show an even greater reduction in crime and that we are detecting more offences.

"These are excellent results and a credit to the hard work of all our staff and, in particular, frontline police officers.

"However, we are aware that communities have specific areas of concern and we are listening to what people tell us. Most recently we turned our attention to young people who hang around the streets drinking and disrupting their neighbourhoods in our ‘Enough is Enough’ campaign.

"We will continue to identify those areas of public concern and take strong action to tackle them.

"But we cannot police in isolation and I would like to thank the community for their help and support and working with us to identify problem areas. I am also grateful to our partners for their contribution."