'When is this pandemic called knife crime ever going to stop?'

The devastated mum of a man killed by a knife-wielding teenager has bravely spoken out about knife crime.

Paul Marsh, 49, was brutally murdered by 17-year-old Jordan Rance following a ‘minor disagreement’ at a flat in Atherton, Wigan.

Rance, who had delivered drugs to the flat owner, stabbed Mr Marsh in the shoulder after the pair became embroiled in a row on November 17 last year.

READ MORE: The frightening selfie of a teenager who killed a beloved dad after a 'minor disagreement'

Mr Marsh sadly died after the stab wound severed a major artery. Following a trial at Manchester’s Minshull Street Crown Court, Rance was convicted of his murder.

At his sentencing hearing, Mr Marsh’s mum, Carol Ann Smith, penned an emotive statement. In it, she remarked on the fact that her son was ‘no angel’, but that did not mean someone had the ‘right to take his life’.

“Paul was my eldest son and the reason I was called mum. A character loved by many, endured by others - whatever the circumstances it was an interaction you never forgot,” she said.

“I will never profess that my son was an angel and won’t paint him as something he wasn’t because he is no longer with us. But I stand by the fact that no one has the right to take his life.

“He was a good man loved by his family and was a kind man who would turn his hand to anyone. The person who stabbed my son made a conscious decision to do so. There are no winners in this. Paul was a father and brother and the love of his partner’s life.”

She commented that Rance’s parents had also had to suffer through what had happened and live with the ’devastating’ fall out.

“His death should never have happened. I should not be attending the funeral of my son,” she wrote.

“I cannot forgive this