A teenage rugby player became the latest victim of street violence when he was stabbed to death in an area that is a magnet for binge drinkers.
Joe Dinsdale, 17, was slashed in the stomach in east Hull on Monday night just hours before the Shadow Home Secretary visited the city to discuss how to tackle drunken violence.
In a separate incident yesterday afternoon, two teenagers suffered multiple stab wounds during a brawl outside a Central London school.
Joe’s father, Andrew Dinsdale, said: “I just do not know what to say. He was such a character. He was such a good lad.”
Detective Chief Inspector Simon Walker said: “Early indications suggest that the victim and suspect were known to each other.”
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Friends and family of the teenager, an enthusiastic rugby league fan, insisted that he was not a gang member and did not consort with those who were.
Colleen O’Hara, who lives close to the crime scene, said: “We have a lot of trouble with kids drinking round the shops. There was a mobile police station down there a while ago.”
Police arrested a 16-year-old boy and a 21-year-old man on suspicion of murder. The youth was later released without charge.
David Davis, who was in Hull for an interview on alcohol-related crime, said that the murder reinforced the need for more police on the streets. “These tragic cases are symptomatic of a much wider problem,” he said.
“Violent crime has doubled in ten years, fuelled by the Government’s lax approach to drugs, 24-hour drinking and law enforcement. The public want to see more police on the beat, with the powers and support to restore order on our streets.”
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Meanwhile, children as young as 12 from three schools were reported to be involved in the violent clashes behind the British Museum in London yesterday. Witnesses said that the violence broke out as children were leaving school for the day.
One youth said: “There were around 15 kids from schools around here fighting — it happens every day — they don’t arrange to meet up, they just fight.”
A 16-year-old pupil at South Camden Community School said that children from her school along with youngsters from nearby Haverstock School and Maria Fideles School were all involved. She said: “I saw a black boy on the floor. He used to go to our school, but left last year. He had been stabbed in the belly and once in the back as well. There was also another boy on the floor. I heard he had been stabbed in the stomach as well.
“There is a lot of fighting around here. You do get stabbings, but not very often and we are not scared to walk around the streets because we’ve just got used to it.”
A 17-year-old youth was in a critical condition in hospital last night while another stabbing victim was described as “comfortable”.
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A street attack in Manchester at the weekend that left an insurance company worker critically ill has also been blamed on Britain’s “booze culture”.
David Burns, 26, was ambushed while walking home in Droylsden on Sunday evening when he was surrounded by up to eight teenagers.
Mr Burns’s mother Agnes, 60, said: “I think parents need to know where their children are and what they are doing when they are out. The majority of them do.
“We allow children too much freedom. I think back to when I was young and it was so strict and it worked. Now parents let them out and if they want another half-hour out they get it and more. What they want they get and those are the parents who are to blame. They need to understand what these children are getting up to and do something to stop it.”
Mr Burns, who works in the fraud unit for Norwich Union, had spent much of the day in the pub watching football. After he left, a gang of youths followed him and his friends, who were heading to a nearby address, and subjected him to taunts and harassment.
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After the group reached the address the youths continued to cause trouble and when Mr Burns and his friends went outside to investigate, he became separated and was encircled by the gang.
Peter Moore, a friend, said that Mr Burns had complained that the teenagers were shouting “baldy” and went out to remonstrate with them. “They goaded him back out of the house and then he was attacked,” he said.