REFORMING Liverpool youngsters met Justice Minister David Hanson when he dropped into a pioneering anti-knife project.

The MP spent time at Liverpool Youth Offender Service’s (YOS) Knife Referral Programme, in Edge Hill, to see how it helps keep young people away from knife crime.

From last October, under-18s caught carrying a weapon in Liverpool must attend the hard-hitting programme as part of the Government’s action plan to tackle knives, during which they must face mothers who have lost their children through knife crime and see for themselves the horrific injuries that knives cause.

Mr Hanson said: “Too many young people are being injured or killed on our streets. We are determined to put a stop to the devastating effect knife crime can have on young lives across Britain.”

One local youngster, ‘Jamie’, 16, who had completed the programme, said: “It scares me to think that there are people out there who want to hurt me. But it’s even scarier knowing that by carrying a knife, there is a real chance that I could end up using it on someone, or that someone could take it off me, and use it on me.