The Southport stabbings show the need for an urgent conversation on knife crime - Jayne Dowle

Time will tell us what really happened at 11.47am in the yoga studio on Hart Street, when the assailant is said to have burst in through an open door and proceeded to stab terrified children and teachers trying to protect them from his deadly blows.

But already questions are being asked. What possesses anybody to launch a frenzied attack on a group of children, thought to be all girls, enjoying a summer holiday activity together?

It has obviously shocked every parent, and particularly those in the dance community. My own daughter, Lizzie, now 18, has taken dance classes since she was three. I’ve lost count of the summer holiday workshops she has attended over the years, typically with her friends.

Mums sharing the drop-offs and pick-ups, rushing off to their jobs and back again, trying not to feel guilty about having to work during the summer holidays. We all remember those days, but however stressed we felt, racing to pack up lunches, sort out dance kits and get to the venue, we’d be pleased that at least our girls were spending time doing something they loved.

“Really,” one friend said to me on Monday evening, as we struggled to comprehend what had happened. “There is nothing more innocent than a dance class full of little girls. Never in your wildest dreams would you think anybody could hurt them.”

What has happened in Southport is absolutely heartbreaking. It should not be allowed to slip down the news agenda over coming days and weeks. Whatever the circumstances of the attack, or his motivations, that young man got that knife from somewhere. And was somehow emboldened to plan and execute his attack.

The Home Secretary, Yvette Cooper, MP for Pontefract, Castleford and Knottingley, must make it a priority to tackle how freely lethal weapons such as knives are available in the UK.

Knife crime has surged by 78 per cent over the last decade, according to the Office for National Statistics, marking a concerning rise in violence across England and Wales. According to police records, there were 50,510 offences of these types of offences recorded by police in the 12 months to March 2024, a four per cent rise in a year.

The Ben Kinsella Trust, an anti-knife crime charity set up in memory of a 16-year-old boy who was stabbed to death in London in 2008, is calling for everyone to recognise their responsibility for knife crime prevention. This includes a plea to tech companies – particularly social media companies – whose platforms, the charity argues, are being misused to normalise and glamourise knife crime and sell dangerous weapons.“We desperately need tech companies to take greater responsibility,” says Patrick Green, the Ben Kinsella Trust’s CEO. “They have miserably failed to self-regulate and continue to sell dangerous weapons on their platforms, whilst also promoting and profiting from violent content. They must recognise their role in knife crime prevention.”

This is a big conversation, but it must be had. Regular retailers now have knife controls in place. Last summer, I was told by the assistant I could no longer buy a small kitchen knife in my local branch of TK Maxx. I ordered one from Amazon instead, but the delivery had to be rescheduled because only my daughter, 17 at the time, was at home and the driver wouldn’t hand it over to an under-18-year-old.

Yet, as in the case of the three horrific Nottingham murders carried out in June 2023 by Valdo Calocane, in Southport a lethal knife was involved.

Calocane was found to be suffering from paranoid schizophrenia and contentiously avoided a murder conviction on grounds of diminished responsibility; he was convicted of manslaughter and is now in a secure hospital.

Murderers getting away with murder? A middle-aged woman can’t buy a knife in TK Maxx, but a 17-year-old can acquire one and go on a murderous rampage? We have to keep talking about this, because senseless, violent death in our communities is in danger of becoming unremarkable. Southport must be a marker in the sand.