Gary Hawley has more reason than most to demand a crackdown on knife crime.
Two-and-a-half years ago, the 52-year-old was fighting for his life in intensive care after a teenage thug stabbed him seven times.

Mr Hawley had acted as a Good Samaritan, asking a gang of drunks to stop harassing three women in Yeadon High Street. But the louts then turned on him, with near fatal consequences. Some attacked with fists, but another, Jason Pears, repeatedly plunged his blade into Mr Hawley's chest and back.

Mr Hawley says he has yet to fully recover from the stabbing, bearing both physical and mental scars.

He said: "If I am out and see a few lads, aged 13 to 17, it does make me nervous. The older ones, 18 and over, don't worry me. It is the younger ones. They seem to be carrying the knives and they are the ones who are using them."

Mr Hawley said he thinks the younger teenagers are willing to use their knives as they are too young to think about – or understand – the consequences.

"They just think about how hard it makes them feel, having a knife," he said. "They think they are gangsters, when all they are is a kid with a knife. They don't think that it is likely to be taken off them and used against them, that they could ruin peoples' lives, and eventually ruin their own when they go to jail."

Mr Hawley dismisses talk of a youth's background playing a part in his choosing to stab someone.

"It is their decision to carry it, their decision to use it," he said.
Instead, he called for a complete overhaul of the criminal justice system, so that offenders serve the time they are sentenced to and respect is restored in the police force.

He said: "My brother came over from the States, he couldn't believe what he saw. The bad boys are terrified of the police there, here they are laughing at them.

"The Government aren't concerned enough with the victim or the victim's family, they are too concerned about the offender. I can't see anything changing until it happens to the son or daughter of a top politician."
Figures obtained by the YEP show knife-related incidents are one of Leeds's biggest crime problems.

Health professionals told the paper that in the first half of 2008, 76 people were treated for knife-related wounds at St James's and Leeds Infirmary's A&E. The same period for 2007 saw just 34 admissions.

Leeds residents seem to have responded to a perceived knife crime rise.

Last year, as a number of high profile incidents turned the spotlight on stabbings, martial arts experts and instructors reported a big rise in numbers at Krav Maga classes.

 Krav Maga, is a defence system taught to Israeli soldiers. It provides its students with numerous knife defense techniques which are relatively easy to learn and prove to be very effective.