Shops caught selling knives to children in Sheffield city centre despite recent stabbings

Between April 7-9, a teenage boy was left fighting for life and two men, aged 21 and 29, were injured in separate stabbings in Sheffield.

Yet just a matter of days later, when South Yorkshire Police carried out a test purchase operation in the city centre, they found that two shops were prepared to sell blades to children.

A total of 17 shops were visited and 14 passed the test - refusing to sell knives and vapes to underage customers.

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But two shops failed when they sold blades to teenagers and another failed for selling a vape to a child.

Just last week, The Star revealed how children in the city had been caught playing a game of ‘tag’ which they call ‘stabbed’.

Anthony Olaseinde, a Sheffield man campaigning against knife crime in the city, told of his horror to find children as young as 10 playing the game at a local youth club.

He said: “Some of the kids were playing a game called ‘stabbed’. It’s like a tag, but they were pretending to stab each other.

“[They were] running around and laughing, but shouting ‘stabbed, stabbed, stabbed!’. I had to pull them in and tell them it isn’t okay. It isn’t a joke.” South Yorkshire Police described the latest test purchase operation as “a success”.

The force added: “These test purchase operations are carried out to ensure that resilience and effective procedures are in place for items such as vapes and knives, and are conducted as part of a Home Office funded violence reduction initiative.

“A total of 17 stores were tested throughout the day. All 17 premises were handed a letter explaining that a test purchase operation had been conducted in the area and why these are regularly conducted. Out of the 17 stores, 14 passed with flying colours, demonstrating good challenge policies, and clearly acting upon advice and guidance provided during previous test purchase operations.”

Simon Kirkham, part of a violence reduction team, said: “Two of the stores failed for selling knives to under 18s and one store failed for selling vapes to under 18s. All three of these stores were given guidance and offered support from our officers on how to ensure correct policies are in place and implemented by staff members.”