EXCLUSIVE:Havering Bereaved Mothers Talk To Community On Knife Crime And How Failed They Are By Those In Authority.

“Havering is not interested in tackling knife crime. The police do what they can but they are not supported. They believe that if they sweep it under the carpet it will go away, but it won’t.”

On Friday 15 March at the Mardyke Community Centre, Rainham, bereaved mothers Sue Hedges and Peguy Kato spoke to members of the local community about the horrors of knife crime and how their lives had been destroyed.

Sue from the Ricky Hayden Memorial and Peguy from All Champion’s Charity, spoke frankly and openly about the impact losing their son has had on their families’ lives.

L-R Sue, Peguy and Pete.

The two mothers were joined by Sergeant Tanner from Havering Joint Task Force, and Pete a paramedic from Shadow Team Preparedness, alongside Councillor Trevor McKeever who hosted the evening.

The Havering mothers shared their experiences and how they would like changes made to help reduce the level of knife crime. They spoke about being completely failed by the system and how those in authority had and still are, ignoring knife crime.

Sue told the Havering Daily: “We have campaigned for years with very little impact and we have met the current Mayor of London and our requests were ignored as well. No one is addressing knife crime as it should be.

“To this day, not one of us has not received any counselling support or ever been offered it. We are totally failed by most who should be changing things for the better.”

Peguy told the Havering Daily: “Havering is not interested in tackling knife crime. The police do what they can but they are not supported. they believe that if they sweep it under the carpet it will go away, but it won’t.”

Sergeant Tanner spoke about the hard work local officers are doing to reduce the level of knife crime on our streets and the positive impact Havering Joint Task Force Officers have made across the borough.

Pete the paramedic shared important information on how to use vital life saving Daniel Baird bleed bags and the really do save lives.

The Member of Parliament for Dagenham and Rainham Margaret Mullane shared news about the Youth Conference she had hosted and the importance of working with our youth. She told the Havering Daily:

“I was moved by the experiences of Sue Hedges and Peguy Kato, who spoke about how the loss of their sons to knife crime affected not just themselves but their whole family.

It was encouraging to hear from local people of the excellent work done by our police officers.

Focusing on what I can have the most influence on, one of the points that shone through is that people feel that sentencing guidelines need to be overhauled. The police commented how possession of a knife can fall under several different offences – hopefully in my work on the Home Affairs Select committee I can explore this issue in more depth.”

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