Sentencing

Offences involving carrying an offensive weapon or knife are reaching epidemic proportions. Every knife or weapon carried in the street represents a public danger. It is important for public confidence in the criminal justice system that the person caught in possession of a knife or offensive weapon without reasonable excuse should normally be brought before the courts and prosecuted.

Sentencing courts must have in the forefront of their thinking that the sentences for this type of offence should focus on the reduction of crime, including its reduction by deterrence, and the protection of the public. Even if the offender does no more than carry the weapon, even when the weapon is not used to threaten or cause fear, when considering the seriousness of the offence courts should bear in mind the harm which the weapon might foreseeably have caused (Sir Igor Judge P at 4).