Police push "carrying a knife is not a game" message as killer begins appeal process

The family of murdered school teacher Robert Symons has backed the Met's campaign to get knives off the streets of the capital.

The anti-knife crime marketing campaign 'Carrying a knife. It's not a game' was launched this week on the same day that convicted killer Yuseuf Bouhaddou began an appeal against his sentence.  Bouhaddou was found guilty of stabbing the 45-year-old father of two at his home in Airedale Avenue and jailed for 27 years. 

The campaign uses a range of channels to target young people aged from 11-19. 'Knife City' a mock computer game demo, demonstrating the tragic personal circumstances and criminal consequences of carrying a knife will appear as a TV advertisement and online ad. Two new radio ads have been created to illustrate the serious consequences of carrying a knife, injury/death and arrest.

Though young people carrying knives may think they are fashionable and carry for self-protection the long-term consequences are much more serious and damaging to themselves and those around them. These ads continue to use the gaming theme developed as part of last year's campaign and deliver serious messages against a backdrop of computer sound effects.

Robert Symon's brother Ronald told The Sun newspaper “The use of a knife in this burglary is symptomatic of a society that sees using knives as acceptable behaviour.”

The campaign follows the Met's Operation Blunt long-term initiatives in tackling knife crime.

December 5, 2006