Shropshire knife angel: Outrage over police failure on weapons plea

Avril Sanders Royle, stepmother of murdered 20-year-old Julian Sanders, has spoken out after it was revealed that a huge Shropshire-based angel sculpture made of blades handed in as part of a knife amnesty may never be unveiled because six police forces have failed to get behind it.

The British Ironwork Centre in Aston, near Oswestry, which is behind the project, began supplying knife banks to the 43 police forces across England and Wales two years ago, with the backing of the Home Office, and since then more than 100,000 knives have been taken off the streets.

But only 37 police forces have contributed, leaving the project at a standstill as Clive Knowles, chairman of the centre, has refused to unveil it until the remaining forces have sent in knives.

Maurice Latus, of Wroxeter near Shrewsbury, decapitated Mr Sanders with an axe before dumping his headless body in Cofton Park in Birmingham in 2000. He was convicted of his murder three years later.

Today Mrs Sanders Royle, of Ruyton-XI-Towns, said: "Every single police force in the country should be participating in this amnesty and it's outrageous there are still some who haven't.

"I can't really understand why they wouldn't. Knife crime devastates families and at a time when statistics on knife crime are on the up, you'd think it was something all forces would be behind.

"The fact that 100,000 knives are now off the streets is incredible, so I don't understand why the remaining forces would drag their feet. How will they explain that to a family who have lost a son or daughter through knife crime?"

Her comments come in the wake of Thomas Mair being jailed for life after being found guilty of the murder of Labour MP Jo Cox earlier this year. Mair shot and stabbed to death the mother-of-two in Birstall, West Yorkshire, on June 16, a week before the EU referendum vote.

Mrs Sanders Royle has now called on the six remaining forces – Dyfed-Powys Police, Gwent, South Wales, Lincolnshire, Sussex and South Yorkshire – and the Government to get behind the amnesty.

It is hoped the sculpture will go on display at the fourth plinth at Trafalgar Square.

The aim of the statue, created by sculptor Alfie Bradley, is to raise awareness of knife crime with its 'Save a Life, Surrender Your Knife' slogan.

Dyfed-Powys Police were unavailable for comment. South Yorkshire and Gwent Police said they were unaware of the project.