TOUGH new laws to crack down on yobs like the one who killed Army cadet Joseph Lappin are on the way, the Home Secretary announced during a visit to Liverpool.

Alan Johnson was at Lime Street station yesterday to see an anti-knife campaign that was taking place across the city this weekend.

But, beforehand, he met with Toni and John Lappin, the parents of murdered Old Swan teenager Joseph.

He was stabbed to death in Everton by yob James Moore, 17, who had consistently breached an Asbo, but whom the courts had failed to jail.

The Lappins voiced their anger at a system they felt had let down their family.

And Mr Johnson said one of the ways he hoped to make a difference was by getting tough with the parents of thugs like Moore.

The Home Secretary said: “In legislation going through the House [of Commons] at the moment, we are trying to make parenting orders mandatory. When an Asbo is breached, automatically a parenting order kicks in so the parents are engaged in ‘what are you doing about changing the behaviour of your son or daughter?’. At the moment, that is discretionary but we want it to be mandatory.

“We spoke about a whole range of issues and the Tackling Knives Action Programme (TKAP) isn’t just about the [metal-detecting] wands and metal arches here.

“It is about a whole range of measures designed to change behaviour.”