TOUGHER minimum sentences for knife possession are being considered by ministers amid growing public concern at the increase in attacks.

Home Office officials and ministers are discussing how to respond to amendments tabled in the Lords by the Conservatives to the Violent Crime Reduction Bill to raise the maximum sentence for possession to five years.

But Vernon Coaker and Lord Bassam of Brighton, Home Office ministers, are also to look at the possibility of automatic jail for carrying knives, as with the unauthorised possession of guns.

Insiders confirmed that statutory minimum penalties for crimes involving knives were being looked at a week after a national knife amnesty began.

Last week Sir Ian Blair, the Commissioner of the Metropolitan Police, called for tougher measures on possession of knives, and other senior officers want to see greater use of metal detectors in stop and search operations.

In the latest death, a 29-year-old father was stabbed in Bristol in front of his 3-year-old daughter in an argument over the price of a pint.

The victim, named by neighbours as Barry Wilson, had been drinking with his attacker. The stabbing happened after a police-sponsored street clean-up event. Mr Wilson is believed to have helped residents on his estate to collect 42 skiploads of rubbish. Friends said that an argument erupted when the man asked for 40p towards the cost of another pint and Mr Wilson refused.

Paul Burgess, a neighbour on the Knowle West estate, said: “I saw Barry and the other chap fighting in the street for about five minutes. They were going in and out of each other’s houses.” Mr Burgess said: “Barry came out with a hammer and this guy must have had a knife hidden up his sleeve. He stabbed him in the neck and then again as he fell to the floor. There were about 20 or 30 neighbours out watching it.”

The catalogue of recent knife attacks includes an attack on Ian Montgomery, who was critically injured after going to the aid of a woman being attacked. Thomas Grant, a student, was killed on a train at the weekend after intervening in a dispute, and Marlvin Jiro was stabbed to death in a fight after a night out in Birmingham.

In London, the head teacher of the school attended by Kiyan Prince, the murdered 15-year-old boy, added his voice to the chorus of those calling for a stronger stance on knife crime. Phil Hearne, principal of the London Academy in North London, said: “We are happy to tackle unhealthy eating in schools, but which is the more dangerous — a turkey twizzler or a knife?”

IF ATTACKED . . .

Make yourself as small as possible. Fall to the ground and make yourself into ball to keep the target area as small as possible

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