Edinburgh Police caught a 10-year-old child carrying a knife in the city as new, “truly shocking” figures revealed that dozens of children have been found with blades across Scotland this year- including primary school pupils.
Police Scotland confiscated knives from at least 91 people who were under the age of 18 in 2024 through stop-and-search powers, which adds up to one child caught with a weapon every four days, reports The Daily Record.
The release of these shocking statistics comes just weeks after the death of schoolboy, Kayden Moy, the third teen to lose his life to youth violence in the last year.
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Numerous incidents involving kids as young as 12 caught with knives occurred in Edinburgh, Ayrshire, Glasgow and Lanarkshire, according to an analysis by justice magazine 1919.
Over a dozen 13-year-olds – including two girls – underwent blade searches that came back positive. Now, teens account for almost a third of positive knife searches across all age groups.
The disturbing incidents prompted warnings of a “youth violence epidemic” which has been repeatedly highlighted by the Record’s Our Kids… Our Future campaign, launched two years ago after we reported a worrying series of attacks on teens across the country.
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The Scottish Government is now under intensified pressure onto act after several high-profile cases.
Labour justice spokesperson Pauline McNeill said: “These shocking figures are yet another sign that there is a youth violence epidemic emerging in Scotland.
“The SNP has created a perfect storm by cutting youth work services, letting police numbers fall, and mismanaging mental health and education.
“Every one of these 91 cases is very serious for our communities and potentially for those actually carrying the weapon.
“The only way to tackle this effectively is to have early intervention schemes that get to the root cause.”
The Scottish Conservatives blamed “soft-touch” sentencing for under-25s, claiming it has emboldened young offenders.
Sharon Dowey MSP said: “Knife crime has spiralled out of control. There must be meaningful punishments for those who use a knife and expanded stop-and-search powers for police to act as a deterrent.
“The SNP’s soft-touch attitude towards justice represents an abject dereliction of duty by John Swinney’s government.”
Scottish Police Federation chair, David Threadgold, added: “This is a concerning societal trend we now see emerging among younger members of our communities in Scotland,” he said.
“Each of these statistics is a real situation which created significant risk for my colleagues, as well as potentially life changing consequences for the perpetrator, and sadly, the victims of knife crime, their families and friends.
“The solution to this problem cannot rest alone with the police; much greater and more effective preventative strategies have to be in place.”
First Minister John Swinney recently said the Government’s strategy would focus on three steps – educating young people on the dangers of knives, police searches of people who they think may be carrying a knife and punishment of those caught with weapons.
A Scottish Government spokesperson said: “Stop and search powers should be used where lawful, necessary and proportionate. Their use in individual cases is an operational matter for Police Scotland.
“Police do use stop and search, and it is one tool to tackle violence alongside a range of other measures such as prevention and education.”
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