Grieving father of schoolboy who was stabbed to death in 2019 issues plea to new Justice Minister

The grieving father of a schoolboy who was stabbed to death five years ago has offered to take part in a Government-backed campaign in our schools to highlight the dangers of knife crime.

Abdul Raguragui – whose 18-year-old son Azzam died after he was attacked in a south Dublin park in 2019 – spoke out after an 11-year-old boy was stabbed in a school on the north side of the capital this week.

This shocking incident is the latest in a series of recent high-profile stabbings, including the fatal and unprovoked attack on an asylum seeker in Dublin’s South Anne Street last month. Mr Raguragui said he was also left ‘heartbroken’ following the fatal stabbing of an eight-year-old girl in New Ross, Co. Wexford, last December.

After his son’s killing, Mr Raguragui said he had called for a nationwide school campaign highlighting the dangers of knife crime. This echoed similar pleas from the parents of Cork student Cameron Blair, who was stabbed to death just six-months after Azzam was fatally attacked. Mr Raguragui believes recent stabbings could have been prevented if political leaders had heeded their calls.

In a direct plea to new Justice Minister Jim O’Callaghan, he said: ‘This is your opportunity now.’

He told the Extra.ie: ‘We have a good opportunity now because of the new Minister for Justice who has a strong understanding of knife crime. I hope he will address this issue. I remember he [O’Callaghan] rang me probably four or five years ago, and he was active on this issue.

SIMILAR CAMPAIGN TO DRINK DRIVING

‘This is his opportunity now. The increase of [maximum] sentences [for knife crime] from five to seven years was good, but we need more now because we are not feeling safe.’ Mr Raguragui said he and his wife face fresh heartbreak any time they hear of another stabbing. Alongside a school awareness programme, he said ‘we also need a campaign similar to drink driving’.

He said he would be willing to be part of any such campaign ‘if it will help prevent further attacks’, adding: ‘I want to prevent others from experiencing what we have experienced. I feel we, as victims, can play a role to help children [not carry knives].’ He believes this would be ‘more powerful than teachers standing up and talking to’ students.

‘We have to do programmes to educate the new generation,’ he said. ‘If we don’t speak to kids now, tomorrow it will be on your street.

‘Every time we hear of a stabbing, we feel new pain, and we need it to stop.’ Figures supplied by former justice minister Helen McEntee last year showed the number of knives seized by gardaí rose by nearly 60 per cent over the previous decade.

A total of 1,341 knives were seized in 2013, rising to more than 2,100 last year despite tougher sentences for knife-related crimes that came into effect in September. The parents of Cameron Blair, who was stabbed to death in an unprovoked attack in January 2020, previously called for a Government-backed schools’ campaign to be rolled out.

Noel and Kathy Blair held a face-to-face meeting with then-acting justice minister Heather Humphreys and her officials in 2021, shortly after the grieving parents gave an emotional interview to Extra.ie in which they called for a new approach to tackle knife crime, including a graphic campaign in secondary schools and a more effective sentencing regime for convicted offenders.

SIGNIFICANT DROP

The former director of the multi-award-winning Scottish Violence Reduction Unit this weekend agreed with Mr Raguragui and the Blair family that pre-emptive intervention is key. After Niven Rennie made similar comments to Extra.ie in 2020 in the wake of Azzam Raguragui’s killing, then government TD and now Minister for State Neale Richmond called for a similar unit to be set up.

Mr Rennie’s approach was credited for a significant drop in Scotland’s homicide rates.

He stressed going down the same road of solely enforcement and punishment has ‘never worked’, telling Extra.ie: ‘This is merely one indicator of wider problems in society and the road to redemption is dealing with the causes rather than reacting to the violence.’ However, Minister O’Callaghan yesterday appeared to rule out a Government-backed campaign to highlight the dangers of knife crime.

In response to queries from Extra.ie, the Department of Justice said: ‘Increasing awareness of knife carrying in a community by young people through campaigns or amnesties can create feelings of insecurity and lead to an increase in the number of young people carrying knives. An Garda Síochána will continue their proactive measures to tackle this issue, including their assault reduction strategy, which is targeted at tackling all types of assaults in public, including the use of knives. This strategy is informed by a pro-arrest, early investigation and proactive high-visibility approach.’

A spokesman said the Minister ‘strongly condemns the use of knives to threaten, intimidate or harm others’, adding: ‘The Government is committed to ensuring communities are safe and tackling knife crime is an important element of that. There are no quickfix solutions to tackling knife crime. Long-term, evidence-based strategies are needed that address knife crime as part of a wider strategic response to anti-social behaviour, street violence, youth offending and domestic violence.’

The Department insisted there is ‘a comprehensive and robust legal framework’ currently in place to combat knife crime. He added: ‘The maximum penalty for the offences of possession of a knife with the intention of unlawfully intimidating or injuring another person, trespassing with a knife, and producing a knife while committing or appearing to be about to commit an offence, increased from five years to seven years imprisonment.

DOUBLED THE MAXIMUM PENATLY

‘The maximum penalty for the offence of manufacturing, importing, selling, hiring or lending offensive weapons increased from seven years to 10 years.’ The Department spokesman also said the Government has doubled the maximum penalty for ‘assault causing harm’ under Section 3 of the Non-Fatal Offences Against the Person Act 1997, from five to 10 years imprisonment, in 2023.

Meanwhile, the father of the 11-year-old boy stabbed in the schoolyard this week said it is ‘a miracle’ his son survived.

Stephen Geraghty said the knife missed one of his son Mason’s arteries by just a couple of centimetres and he was initially told his son had a 50/50 chance of surviving. ‘I thought I was saying goodbye,’ he told Virgin Media.

However, he said the schoolboy was ‘doing really well’ after undergoing emergency surgery, adding: ‘I don’t know where he gets the strength from.’