Father of murdered Yorkshire teenager calls for tougher sentences to combat knife crime

Jamie Brown, 17, was fatally stabbed after a fight broke out outside a party in Ovenden, Halifax on October 27, last year.

His killer, Michael Thompson, also 17, from Huddersfield, was last week jailed for life with a minimum of 17 years.

Robert Brown, 50, says the fact Thompson will be released from prison when he is in his thirties, adds to his grief.

Mr Brown said: "I thought he would have got a longer sentence.

"He was smirking in court throughout the hearing and there was no remorse there.

"He will be out of prison when he is in his thirties and he will get to live the rest of his life.

"He will get to go on and have kids, Jamie won't.

"In my eyes, the law should be changed and life should be mean life."

Mr Brown also wants to see the Government take further action to tackle knife crime across Yorkshire.

The Yorkshire Post recently revealed how offences involving knives have increased by 94 per cent across the region over the last eight years.

Mr Brown said: "You hear stories about stabbings on the news, but it never enters your mind that it will happen to you or your family.

"There has been such a big spate of it. every time your phone bleeps you hear about another person being stabbed to death.

"There needs to be more stop and searches carried out by the police and people need to be educated on the dangers.

"The way things are going at the moment, I just don't think the problem is going to stop,"

Mr Brown now has a message to anyone who carries a knife in Yorkshire.

"I just want to tell people not to carry them," he said.

"They ruin lives. You might not have the intention but who knows what will happen? You wont just ruin one live, you ruin the lives of all the families. We don't want anyone to go through what we have

"Jamie was in the wrong place at the wrong time, but I think he would want to be remembered for helping raise awareness and stopping this from happening to anyone else."

Home Secretary Sajid Javid previously said he is "deeply concerned" about knife crime across Yorkshire following th 94 per cent increase in offences in the last eight years.

In an exclusive interview with The Yorkshire Post, the Home Secretary said he is doing everything in his power to tackle the "senseless violence that is traumatising communities and claiming too many young lives".

This includes investing an additional £67 million which will be shared between the four Yorkshire police forces and will see nearly 370 more police officers recruited to the front line to fight knife crime.

This is on top of an extra £12m shared between West Yorkshire Police and South Yorkshire Police specifically to tackle violent crime.