'We feel their pain': Families of stabbing victim's plead for end to new knife crime epidemic; The North East was rocked by a wave of deaths a decade ago - and knife crime is again on the rise.
Byline: Sophie Doughty
They were the darkest of days on our streets.
A decade ago a terrifyingknife crimeepidemic that had gripped Tyneside for several years appeared to be coming to an end.
Between 2006 and 2009 a heartbreakingly high number of young lives were lost in knife attacks inour region.
Many of the attacks were senseless in nature and happened when the victims - often teenagers - crossed paths with someone carrying a blade.
And often the attackers and their victims had never met one another before.
Police, campaigners and loved ones of those who lost their lives are sure to have hoped that these tragic days were behind us following a period of relative calm on our streets over recent years.
But new figures released earlier this month show that knife crime is once again on the rise in the region.
And nationally, knife deaths have reached their highest levels since theSecond World War.
The latest stats show police forces inNorthumbria,Durhamand Cleveland are now dealing with 19 knife crimes a week and recorded a staggering 999 incidents involving a knife or sharp instrument in the 12 months up to September 2018.
The number of offences has increased since 2010, when there were 768 similar offences.
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It comes after a year which has seen violent and knife crime in London rise to such a level that the Metropolitan Police has now launched a special task force to deal with it.
And as the debate on knife crime goes on, we look back at the North East's tragic death toll of a decade ago, while victims' relatives have told of their sadness that so many families are today enduring the same torture they did.
Alison Madgin, whose 18-year-old daughter Samanthawas stabbed to death in 2007, said the new figures have given her a renewed drive to make sure youngsters today know what happened to Samantha.
The 53-year-old said: "I feel very strongly that we need to get out there and let young people know what happened to Samantha. This rise in knife crime has given me new inspiration to do something.
"We need to start from the roots and educate people about the consequences of carrying knives. I think schools bury their heads in the sand, they don't want to talk about it.
"Young people need to know the dangers, what could happen to them and what could happen to others."
Pat McDougall has also worked tirelessly to educate youngsters about the dangers of carrying knives since her grandson Glen Corner was stabbed to death inSouth Shieldson his 16th birthday.
The 70-year-old said: "It's so sad to think that other people are going through the same as what we have. It's horrendous.
"Whenever I hear of a stabbing I think of someone else going through what we did. It never leaves you. It's not the murderers that get the life sentences it's the families.
"When something does happen your heart goes out to those familes."
Mark was just 16 years old when what was believed to be a petty row over a girlended in him being knifed in the neck, yards from his family home, inBenwell, Newcastle.
A 16-year-old boy pleaded guilty to manslaughter and was locked...
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