One hundred people have been fatally stabbed in the UK so far this year, according to an analysis of official data. The first victim was 33-year-old mother Charlotte Huggins, who died in London hours after celebrating the new year. The 100th was John Lewis, 32, who died in Middlesbrough on 14 May.
Victims range in age from 14-year-old Jaden Moodie, stabbed in Leyton, east London in January, to 80-year-old Barbara Heywood, attacked at her home in Bolton in March. Almost half were under 30, and the majority were male.
Knife crime in England and Wales rose to record levels in 2017-18, with fatal stabbings at their highest since Home Office records began in 1946. So far in 2019, there has been one fatal stabbing every 1.45 days. If this rate continues, the annual total would be slightly lower than the 285 stabbing deaths recorded in 2017-18.
Thirty of the fatal stabbings occurred in London, ten in Greater Manchester, and eight in the West Midlands. Police have made arrests in nearly all cases and charged suspects in 86.
Notable cases include computer programmer Lee Pomeroy, 51, stabbed nine times on a train from Guildford to London Waterloo in front of his 14-year-old son, and Tudor Simionov, 33, a doorman killed in Mayfair on New Year's Eve. Several suspects have been charged and are awaiting trial.
