New violent crime taskforce launched in South Yorkshire

The team is to be funded with a £2.5 million Home Office grant to tackle and reduce violent crime across the county over the next 12 months.CRIME: Teenager seriously injured in attack at Sheffield raveSouth Yorkshire Police said the taskforce ‘aims to reduce the volume of knife and firearm enabled assaults, wounding and robberies’.

The taskforce will also ‘look to increase the number of suspects arrested’ for violent crime.READ MORE: Police probe into murder in Sheffield city centre continuesTo mark the launch of the taskforce, a police day of action is to be held in Doncaster, where hi-visibility patrols will be carried out and officers will search for weapons.

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A knife arch will be used at a number of locations across the town to root out those walking the streets armed.

Last year South Yorkshire was rocked by nine fatal stabbings.

Jarvin Blake, 22, was stabbed in an attack in Brackley Street, Burngreave, last March.

Caine Gray, aged 27, of Treetown Crescent, Treeton, Rotherham, was found guilty of murder and Sheffield men Josiah Foster, 26, of Wordsworth Crescent, Parson Cross and Devon Walker, 25, of Ellesmere Road North, Burngreave, were both found guilty of manslaughter.

Lewis Barker, 27, of North Hill Road, Southey Green, pleaded guilty at the start of the trial.

They are to be sentenced later this week.

Detectives said Jarvin, a dad-of-three from Gleadless, was killed ‘as a result of a build-up of violence’ associated with the ‘dealing of drugs’.

Frank Mvila Kiongaze, 23, of Morland Road, Gleadless, was jailed for stabbing 19-year-old Ryan Jowle in Tannery Close, Woodhouse, in a row over drug territory on May 22.

He was sentenced to 12 years and seven months after admitting manslaughter.

A 15-year-old boy was jailed for two years and eight months over another fatal stabbing in Sheffield two days later.

The boy, who cannot be named for legal reasons, admitted manslaughter after 15-year-old Sam Baker was stabbed to death in Lowedges Road, Lowedges, with a knife he had been carrying himself.

And Lee Fueloep, 40, was jailed for life and ordered to serve a minimum of 35 years behind bars for the murder of 73-year-old Jill Hibberd, who was stabbed 70 times in her home Roy Kilner Way, Wombwell, Barnsley, during a burglary on May 30.

Michael Goddard, 51, of Steven Close, Chapeltown, Sheffield, was jailed for a minimum of 24 years after being convicted of murdering his 59-year-old neighbour Glenn Boardman in an attack last June.

And killer Danny Trotter, 24 of no fixed abode, was locked up for a minimum of 22 years after being found guilty of murdering Gavin Singleton, 31, in an attack in Hillsborough last September.

Marjorie Grayson, 83, is to be sentenced later this month for stabbing her husband while she was suffering from dementia.

The pensioner has admitted manslaughter on the grounds of diminished responsibility.

Her husband Alan, 85, was pronounced dead in the home they shared in Orgreave Lane, Handsworth, on September 13 last year.

Detectives have yet to charge anyone over the murders of Kavan Brissett and Fahim Hersi, who were both stabbed last year.

Kavan, 21, was attacked in an alleyway off Langsett Walk, Upperthorpe, on Tuesday, August 14 and Fahim, 22, was killed in an attack outside Cineworld on the Valley Centertainment complex, Attercliffe, on Friday, September 21.

Anyone with information should call South Yorkshire Police on 101.