City has a part in 'memorial to knife victims'

BUT POLICE SAY KNIFE CRIME IN REGION IS LOW

- By CARL EVE

The Knife Angel arrives in Plymouth

A STRIKING sculpture of an angel made entirely out of knives handed in to police has a particular link with Plymouth, its home for the next month.

The Knife Angel was recently installed between the Civic Centre and the Guildhall, to serve as a powerful reminder of the impact that violence can have on individuals, families and communities.

It will be in Plymouth for a month and its visit is designed to create space for reflection, conversation and education and focus on the prevention of knife crime.

Knives handed in during knife amnesties or seized by more than 40 police forces have been used in the sculpture, which has toured around the country.

Taking more than five years to create the Knife Angel - described as the National Monument against Violence and Aggression by its makers, the British Ironwork Centre - it has more than 100,000 blades which form the remarkable statue.

Chairman of the Centre, Clive Knowles, said the Knife Angel was a "towering memorial of hope and a beautiful homage to all the lives lost and affected by these horrific acts of violence, with many of its knives inscribed by victims' family members with messages of love and forgiveness."

However, people in Plymouth may be unaware that one of the knives also has a particular link to the city - as it bears the name of a Plymouth man stabbed in Tamerton Foliot.

The large butcher's blade is inscribed with words thanking Derriford Hospital Surgeon Commander Anthony Lambert who operated on Jamie Healy, one of a number of young men who suffered horrific knife injuries on January 1, 2015, when Donald Pemberton and Ryan Williams attacked them in Tamerton Foliot.