'TOO SOFT' ON KNIVES.

Byline: JAMES LYONS 

THE father of murdered Harry Potter actor Rob Knox yesterday blasted the Government's anti-knives policy as "using TCP on a large open wound".

Colin Knox hit out after new figures showed blade killings have risen despite a crackdown.

He asked Gordon Brown when he met him on Monday to introduce an automatic six-month sentence for anyone caught with a blade. Mr Knox repeated his demand yesterday.

He said: "There are a lot of good things going on, but they're using TCP on a large open wound and they need to stitch it up.

"A mandatory custodial sentence would take the carrier off the street. Take him into an institution where you change his way of thinking. Get the streets safer." Rob was stabbed five times in the chest by "habitual knife carrier" Karl Bishop outside a bar in Sidcup, Kent.

Mr Knox wants to see boot-camps for blade thugs and says the current maximum five-year sentence isn't enough. He added: "I don''t want any parent to go through the hell we have. I owe it to my son."

The PM insisted changing attitudes, not tougher sentences, was the answer. He said: "We have got to make it unacceptable for young people to carry knives."

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FATHER Colin Knox