The father of a young Fife dad who died after being stabbed in May 2011 has backed two grieving Fife mums whose lives were also torn apart by knife crime.
Alan McLean, who set up the Ditch the Knife Cherish Life campaign after his 27-year-old son Barry was stabbed to death in Burntisland, is offering his support to a newly-formed Knives Cost Lives campaign.
As reported by The Courier last week, the Knives Cost Lives campaign is being supported by Susan Cleave, whose teenage son Connor was killed outside his Methil home earlier this month, and June Martin, whose two children were stabbed to death by their father at their home in Buckhaven in 2008.
It was set up by Kennoway mum-of-three Amanda Scott in the wake of Connor’s tragic death on Simon Crescent on April 8.
Mr McLean told The Courier: “We will be getting signed up on to the No Knives in Fife Campaign. As I have always said, we need to unite as one team, one voice.
“Well done to Amanda Scott and everyone driving the campaign, and yes we need Fife to pull together with maximum support from our Scottish Government to make our streets safe and protect our children.
“We should not be in a position where we are frightened to let our children play in the streets of our communities.
“Where is the deterrent to prevent this from happening to another innocent family? When will our justice system take a different approach to prevent knife crime and punish those responsible accordingly?
“Again we need more safeguards in place to protect the public.
“Most importantly we need to change the mind set of our younger generation, which is the only answer and way forward, but we need a hard-hitting approach and again the stop and search is a step in the right direction.
“Too many lives have been lost to knife crime and too many families left to pick up the pieces. Together we need to say enough is enough.”
He added: “Carole Longe, who is one of the founders of Justice after Acquittal, wrote a very interesting column which explains her own personal experience after losing her daughter, and also the national minimum standards that have been proposed and piloted in England.
“I strongly believe that Scotland should be taking the lead on this issue.
“I have written a letter to our Scottish Parliament asking if independence will incorporate positive change within our current justice system. I am still awaiting a response.”
The McLean family from Burntisland are making preparations for their fifth anti-knife crime march, to be held in Dunfermline in July.