𝓤𝓷𝓲𝓽𝓮𝓭 𝓝𝓮𝔀𝓼

Two mothers whose sons were stabbed to death on London’s streets have vented their fury at the Metropolitan Police Service and Sir Sadiq Khan as they wait a combined nearly 30 years for justice. Kim Williams, 62, is enduring a 21-year wait for someone to be punished for Karl Hamilton’s killing. The 17-year-old was knifed in 2004 by a group of around 15 individuals in Hackney, sustaining wounds to his head, torso and left thigh.

Ms Williams said she does not receive updates from the police, and claimed that officers have been passed a voice statement from a man who named himself and two others as perpetrators. “It’s horrible,” she told The Express. “The two occasions when I’ve had the case reopened, it has been myself who contacted the police.” Karen Michelle McPhillips, 62, has waited eight years for Jonathan McPhillips’s murder to be solved.

The 28-year-old was stabbed to death in Upper Street, Islington, in 2017 while protecting a friend from blade-wielding attackers, his family say.

Ms McPhillips said she feels as though she is just “existing” day to day.

“When I get up every day, I get in the shower and I just say to God: ‘Bring on what you will.’

“Because I’m numb; my emotions have been totally turned off.

“It doesn’t mean I don’t love somebody, it doesn’t mean I don’t care about other people.”

She added: “When you get that pain of the loss of a child through the brutality of murder, with no explanation why and nobody to blame, your brain goes into survival mode.

“I’m in fight mode 24 hours a day.”

The mother cannot help thinking about what her son’s killer is doing right now.

“That perpetrator is walking the streets, having his children, getting married, living his life believing he’s got away with murder.

“I pray to God every day that someone, especially a woman scorned, gives him up.

“Because, at the end of the day, he’s the father to your children, but he’s a murderer.

“He took someone else’s life.”

Ms McPhilips said she has not heard from the police since her son’s case was examined by the coroner in 2019.

The Express understands that the Hamilton case is active and enquiries are ongoing, but the current status of the McPhillips case is not known.

A man was charged after McPhillips’s death but was found not guilty due to a lack of evidence.

The Met has been contacted for more information.

Three individuals were previously charged over Hamilton’s murder but were subsequently acquitted.

A spokesperson for Sir Sadiq said the Mayor’s thoughts and prayers are with the families of Karl and Jonathan.

They added: “It is vital that no stone is left unturned by the Met to deliver justice for these families.”

A spokesperson for the Met expressed its condolences and insisted the force is “committed to combating knife crime”.

Officers have made “major strides in tackling this blight on London’s streets”, they added.

The force said the amount of what it calls knife-enabled crime has fallen by 16% in the past year, while homicide in Greater London is at a 10-year low.

The spokesperson said the Met is “stepping up visible patrols, facilitating knife surrender schemes and conducting surge activity”.

Sir Sadiq says he is tackling crime’s “complex causes” through his Violence Reduction Unit.

His office said London recorded the lowest number of homicides of under-25s for more than two decades last year, and knife crime and hospital admissions of young people for knife assault have fallen over the last 12 months.

Ms McPhillips said: “Well, why is the news still full of young people dying?”

When asked if it feels like anything has changed, she added: “No, nothing’s changed.

“The truth of the matter is, it’s not just young people now.

“People are using knives to settle arguments, like road rage.”

Ms Williams believes it is still too easy for people to get hold of a blade, and shops should not sell them to under 25s.

She told Sir Sadiq and Sir Keir Starmer, who has promised to work with the Mayor to tackle knife crime: “Stop talking; let’s see some action.”

Ms McPhillips said: “I’d like to see both of them actually be injected with how I feel every single day of my life.”

She added that she has had multiple meetings with the Mayor, during one of which she gave him a box of Valentine’s Day chocolates with knife crime victims’ faces on them.

“When I went to see him the next time, I asked him if he remembered my son’s name.

“He didn’t know who I was.”

The mother added: “If they actually lost one of their children and had to live in my shoes every single day, that’s when the Government will change.”

Knife crime data

The Mayor’s office emphasises the following Office for National Statistics (ONS) data:

• Londoners are less likely (26.3 offences per 1,000 population) to be a victim of violent crime than across the rest of England and Wales (31.5 offences per 1,000 population)
• There was a 3% reduction in Violence Against the Person offences recorded by the MPS
• There was a 14% reduction in Violence with Injury offences recorded by the MPS
• Londoners are less likely (7.1 offences per 1,000 population) to be a victim of violence with injury than across the rest of England and Wales (8.3 offences per 1000 population)