Public security

Thugs smuggling 44,740 guns and knives into courtrooms show brazen contempt for the law

CRIMINALS are caught trying to smuggle guns and knives into court buildings every day, a Daily Express investigation has revealed. Shocking figures show the contempt knife and gun thugs hold for the law with more than 40,000 illegal blades, airguns, Tasers and CS gas among the items seized. In just five years 57 firearms and 44,683 knives have been confiscated at courthouses at a rate of nearly 30 every day.

Experts said our expose laid bare a terrifying breakdown in law and order and prompted demands for more frontline police.

There were also demands for them to be equipped with increased stop and search powers to halt the appalling trend in weapon carrying.

John Apter, chairman of the Police Federation of England and Wales, said: "We are in the grip of a national knife crime crisis where we are in danger of it becoming a cultural norm for some to carry weapons. These figures are an indicator of just how brazen some people are.

"The fact anybody would even consider taking a knife or even a firearm into a court is not only astounding but deeply concerning."

The shocking scale of weapons carried by court users was unearthed in Ministry of Justice statistics showing the number of knives, razor blades, bladed instruments and weapons confiscated from individuals attempting to enter court buildings in England and Wales since 2013/14.