Backing for crossbow licence plea

A FORMER security minister has raised questions in Parliament about what the Government intends to do to restrict the sale of crossbows, and backed this newspaper's campaign for urgent action.

- Jon Austin

Sir John Hayes "strongly supports" the Sunday Express Crackdown on Crossbows campaign.

We launched it two weeks ago after discovering a rise in use of the weapon in violent attacks. Just two days later, three women from the same family were murdered at home by a man armed with a crossbow.

Carol Hunt, 61, wife of BBC racing presenter John Hunt, and two of their daughters - Louise, 25, and Hannah, 28 were found seriously injured at in their home Bushey, Herts, and died later in hospital. Suspect Kyle Clifford, 26, was found badly wounded in an Enfield cemetery the next day.

He was arrested but is in hospital and has not been questioned.

Our campaign was launched after we exposed how easy it was for any adult to buy a deadly crossbow online, simply by emailing a photo of a driving licence or passport.