Children hand in dozens of weapons after knife crime sessions in wake of Reece Tansey murder

Dozens of weapons have been handed in by children after knife crime training in schools in the wake of the murder of Bolton teen Reece Tansey, councillors have heard.

The ‘Let’s End The Hurt’ one-day training programme on the dangers of carrying knives has been delivered to around 20,000 children in total at Bolton’s 20 secondary schools.

A meeting of the town’s children’s scrutiny committee heard a presentation on youth crime in Bolton, in which the prevalence of children carrying and using knives was discussed in detail.

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The training programme came after the knife murder in Bolton of teenager Reece Tansey in May 2021.

Reece, 15, was stabbed six times and following a trial, James White, 16, was found guilty of his murder and jailed for 15 years.

Mark Nuttall, 15, was found guilty of manslaughter and sentenced to six years imprisonment.

Bernie Brown, director of children’s services for Bolton, addressed the scrutiny meeting.

Shockingly, she said many young people carrying weapons do not know that stabbing someone with a knife can kill them.

She said: “We have engaged with and excellent training programme ‘Let’s End The Hurt’ with GMP and secondary schools. This was following the tragic murder of Reece Tansey.

“We provided one day training to raise awareness in young people around knife crime. Lots of young people carry knives but don’t realise you can kill people with them.

“That sounds crazy but when you talk to young people they carry them because they’re worried about being attacked but they’re not clear that if you stab somebody in the body you could quite likely kill them if you hit the wrong place.

“We also