Stricter knife laws will save lives, says Ronan Kanda’s sister

THE SISTER of a teenager killed with a ninja sword said stricter online knife sales rules and tougher penalties for violations will have an impact.

The new measures, known as Ronan’s Law, are named after 16-year-old Ronan Kanda, who was fatally stabbed near his home in June 2022 in a case of mistaken identity.

His attacker, also 16, had ordered a 22-inch sword online using his mother’s ID to bypass security checks. Over several months, he had purchased nearly 30 knives and machetes this way.

Speaking to the BBC, Ronan’s sister, Nikita Kanda, said the changes would make it harder for young people to access dangerous weapons.

“On the day of my brother’s murder, his murderer had no problem collecting the knives from the local post office,” she said, adding that no age checks were performed.

Under the new rules, set to take effect in the spring, retailers will be required to report bulk or suspicious knife purchases to the police.

The prison sentence for selling weapons to under-18s will increase from six months to two years. A new £1 million policing unit will also be established to monitor illegal knife sales on social media.

Ronan’s mother, Pooja Kanda, who has campaigned for stricter laws, said the online sale of bladed weapons played a major role in her son’s death.

She told BBC Breakfast that had the new law been in place, “the murderers would not have been able to get the weapons so easily.”

The changes are part of the government’s Crime and Policing Bill and follow a review by the National Police Chiefs’ Council into online knife sales.

Home secretary Yvette Cooper said the measures aim to address the ease with which young people can obtain knives online.
The government has pledged to halve knife crime over the next decade.

According to the Ben Kinsella Trust, there were 262 knife-related murders in the year to March 2024, with 57 victims under 25.