THIS is one of the terrifying blades taken off the streets of Swindon in a police blitz on knife crime.

They included a meat cleaver, serrated kitchen knives and the blue-handled boning knife stashed in the undergrowth in Broadgreen.

Insp David Tippetts said his officers had last week visited the parents of 11 children found in possession of knives, as the Wiltshire force supported a national push to tackle knife crime. Police had also visited three Swindon secondary schools as part of the Op Sceptre campaign.

“I think most parents are shocked when they find out. They are unaware and want to do something. They want the best for their children,” Insp Tippetts told the Advertiser.

He urged parents to check their children’s rucksacks, man bags and purses in case they were being used to stash weapons.

“Most teenagers are naturally secretive. They don’t want their parents to know what’s going on. The nosier parents are the better.

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“The message that keeps coming through time and again is that knives are carried for protection.

“People feel scared and they need to carry a knife to protect themselves. Whether that’s because they’re dealing drugs or it’s because other people are.

“This is not just a policing issue. It’s a community issue. We’re only going to resolve it through support from the community and partner agencies.

“It starts with parents providing that intelligence.”

The police officer, who manages officers in south Swindon, knows just how deadly knives can be.

Insp Tippetts was one of the first on the scene of the brutal murder of mum-of-eight Alison Connolly in 2015. Sisters Charice and Amberstasia Gassman, who stabbed her during a neighbour dispute, are serving life sentences for her death.

“It just demonstrates how quickly someone’s life can end and the ripples that has through that family,” he said.

“It’s not just the crime itself. It has a massive impact on everybody who knew that person. The family. The officers who attend.

“It’s traumatic for everyone who has to deal with it. It has a lasting effect. I don’t think anyone could ever become desensitised to that kind of really traumatic incident.”

In a week of action for Op Sceptre, police:

  • Arrested a 16-year-old who was found with CS gas and a hammer on Cavendish Square, Park South. He was released under investigation. 
  • An 11-year-old found carrying a knife in Swindon town centre will be interviewed by officers soon. 
  • Obtained a court closure order for a crack den in Walcot, after officers executing a drugs warrant on the Raleigh Avenue flat found a suspected drug dealer hiding out
  • Charged a Swindon man with possession of a bladed article in a public place.  It followed the stop and search of a car by police on Thursday, during which officers allegedly discovered a meat cleaver in the man's vehicle.
  • A 46-year-old woman from Swindon was charged with possession of a bladed article in a public place after being arrested by officers on Wednesday. Kerry-Anne Mclane from Sheppard Street has been released on unconditional bail. 

In the last year, police have responded to around a dozen stabbings.

The most recent, in Upper Stratton, saw a 52-year-old man from Milton Keynes stabbed in the thigh earlier this month during an argument that started in a house on Clays Close. Two men, including the stabbing victim, have been arrested on suspicion of causing grievous bodily harm. “They are known to each other and we are not looking for anyone else,” a force spokeswoman said.