Grieving dad leads Whitehall protest

Jun 12 2008 by Dan Warburton, The Journal

A NORTH father last night led a march on Downing Street to demand tougher sentences for the perpetrators of violent crime.

Around 40 families joined the march in Whitehall, London, culminating in the presentation of a 35,000-signature petition outside Number 10.

And the protest was headed by John Johnson, 57, from Sunderland, whose 22-year-old son Kevin – a new dad – was stabbed to death outside his Sunderland home.

Along with his wife, Kath, 57, he launched the Enough is Enough campaign to fight for longer jail terms for the perpetrators of knife crime.

And yesterday the taxi driver, of Ridley Avenue in Ryhope, Sunderland, demanded concrete action by the Government to crack down on violent crime.

He said: “It is getting to be an epidemic and it has got to be addressed with actions, not words.

“To me Gordon Brown and the Government are just coming out with words to try to appease people but then three weeks later things are just back to normal and that is not good enough.

“We want him to change the law for sentencing on murder and we want life to mean life – not for it to mean 12 years or 15 years.”

Kevin Johnson died of a single stab wound to the chest in May last year after he confronted a rowdy mob outside his home that was keeping his baby awake.

The gang, who were high on a cocktail of alcohol and drugs, went on to stab another man on a nearby street as Kevin’s life ebbed away.

Dean Curtis, 18, Tony Hawkes, 17, and Jordan Towers, 16, were all given life sentences for Kevin’s murder with minimum terms of 17 years, 16 years and 13 years in prison respectively.

A Ministry of Justice spokesman said that each individual case had to be considered on merit, and those convicted were only released when they were no longer deemed a risk to the public.

He said: “No life sentence prisoner can expect to be released unless and until the level of risk they present to the public is acceptable.

“Every lifer released on licence remains subject to recall to custody for the rest of their lives.”