The American with a plan to tackle gang violence

A young woman became the latest victim of London knife crime last night when she was stabbed to death by a female attacker just a few hundred metres away from the home of Jacqui Smith, the Home Secretary.

Dee Willis, 28, was stabbed outside a supermarket near Peckham High Street in southeast London. Neighbours said today that she had recently suffered a miscarriage and lost her twins.

A few hours after the attack, the Home Secretary appeared on breakfast television and denied that stabbings were a growing problem in London. “Knife crime, although we are very worried about it, it is not more serious that it has been previously,” she told GMTV.

Ms Smith was speaking the day after hundreds of teenagers marched through Islington, in North London, demanding an end to the knife crime epidemic which left their friend Ben Kinsella dead last weekend.

The 16-year-old boy, whose sister Brooke was a former EastEnders actor, was stabbed to death while out celebrating the end of his GCSE examinations on Sunday morning. He became the 17th teenager to die a violent death in London since the beginning of the year.

Police investigating last night’s knife attack confirmed that they believe it was a rare woman-on-woman knife attack. Officers unsuccessfully raided a house today looking for the main suspect.

It is believed that the two women, who knew each other, had been drinking together during the day of the attack.

Ms Willis received a wound to her upper body outside a Lidl supermarket in Bellenden Road at around 11pm. She was taken to Kings College Hospital but was pronounced dead shortly after midnight.

The controller of a nearby taxi firm said that a group of 10 to 20 young women were at the scene around the time of the incident. He claimed that it was a well-known trouble spot.

"It is happening around here almost every night. At around 7pm to 8pm people arrive and start drinking in the streets," he said. "They lose their brains and it turns violent."

Ms Willis is believed to live in a flat with her boyfriend in Nunhead Crescent, Peckham. Nearby residents described her as quiet.

Steve Phosman, a 54-year-old plumber, who lived below the victim, said: "She kept herself to herself. I only really saw her when she was walking her two dogs."

He added that Ms Willis had recently been pregnant but miscarried, resulting in the loss of twins.

Another resident confirmed the recent bereavement. She said: "She lost twins about a month ago. I think she was around seven months gone."

Boris Johnson, the Mayor of London, who promised to tackle knife-related violence if elected, announced this morning that more than 1,200 people have been arrested during what he said was an unprecedented crackdown on knife crime in London since May.

He said: “Everybody is shocked by the level of violence we are seeing, particularly towards young people in London, and we must all work as hard as we can together to reverse this dreadful trend.”

The new figures revealed that 1,214 people were arrested for possession of weapons and other knife-related crimes between May 19 and June 29.

Many were recovered during stop and search operations in high streets and at transport hubs, while others were found in weapons stashes.

Sir Ian Blair, Metropolitan Police Commissioner, was with the mayor this morning to announce the knife crime figures. He said the stabbing of Ben Kinsella in Islington at the weekend showed that “the problem of knife crime is still with us”.

“I know the communities of London understand that this is something they and the police have to solve together,” he said.

“I promise that the Met is in this for the long haul and we will do everything in its power to stop these murders continuing.”

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