Kyle Davis, 18, smiles for a selfie outside Birmingham Magistrates' Court yesterday

A suspected drug dealer with a history of carrying a blade dodged jail yesterday.

Kyle Davis, 18, was given a suspended sentence despite being caught with cocaine and a knife – his second weapons offence.

The case, which comes amid mounting fury at the number of teenage stab victims, will fuel concerns about soft justice for knife offenders.

Davis laughed as he swaggered out of Birmingham magistrates’ court, taking a selfie on his phone to record his glee at escaping prison.

Only a few miles away three teenagers had lost their lives in 12 days of carnage that police leaders described as a ‘national emergency’.

In London, two boys aged 15 – one caught with a hooked knife and the other with two hidden blades – were let off with youth rehabilitation orders yesterday.

As campaigners condemned the lenient sentences and politicians and police chiefs squabbled over how to deal with the crisis:

Home Secretary Sajid Javid demanded more money for police and wider use of stop-and-search powers during a charged Cabinet meeting;

Scotland Yard chief Cressida Dick rejected Theresa May’s claim that there was no link between officer numbers and crime levels;

The family of girl scout Jodie Chesney, 17, who was murdered in east London, called for tougher sentences;

The Lebanese aunt of public schoolboy Yousef Makki, 17, who was killed in a leafy Cheshire village, told of her disbelief at his death;

Boris Johnson said thugs carrying ‘killer’ knives must understand they risked time in jail;

Defence Secretary Gavin Williamson offered the support of the military to help police tackle knife crime.

Today, Mr Johnson savages Theresa May’s record as home secretary in an article for the Daily Mail, saying her reforms on stop and search ‘turned out to be a very grave mistake’.

Jodie Chesney, 17, left, was murdered in a knife attack in East London, while public school boy Yousef Ghaleb Makki, right, was stabbed to death in Hale Barns, Cheshire, last Saturday

The former Cabinet minister, who met Jodie in 2016, says thugs must be taught it is not ‘cool’ to carry a knife.

The Mail attended a number of magistrates and youth courts yesterday and saw a string of knife offenders escape jail.

Davis was spared a custodial punishment despite sentencing guidelines dictating repeat knife offenders should face a minimum six-month sentence and a maximum of four years.

He had been caught carrying a knife at school at the age of 14, for which he received a police caution.

Yousef, 17, was stabbed in Hale Barns (pictured on Sunday) and died a short time later

There have been 20 murders in London in 2019 so far, plus another on a London-bound train

Last September the teenager from Erdington in Birmingham was stopped by officers who suspected he was dealing drugs.

Davis fled but was captured with a lock knife, five bags of cannabis and three wraps of cocaine.

He admitted possessing the knife and drugs and received a six-month prison sentence suspended for two years after obtaining a reference from a charity called Bringing Hope.

Sean Evans, the chairman of the bench, told him: ‘We believe you have the character to change and we want to give you that opportunity.’

Alison Cope, right, lost her son Joshua, left, to a stabbing in Birmingham in 2013. She was outraged that Davis received a suspended sentence after admitting carrying a blade

Natasha Bournes, defending, claimed the aspiring electrical engineer was trying drugs for the first time.

Davis was told to carry out 280 hours of unpaid work and 40 days of rehabilitation. He must also pay £300 in costs.

After the hearing, his lawyer told the Mail: ‘A suspended sentence can be more onerous than a custodial sentence of six months because now he is going to have this hanging over him for two years.’

But the sentence provoked fury from knife campaigners.

Alison Cope, 45, who campaigns against knife crime after her son Joshua Ribero was stabbed to death, said: ‘No wonder he’s laughing and smiling.

'The courts are showing, yet again, that when it comes to the crunch the consequences of carrying a knife aren’t what the authorities are making out.

Jodie was attacked near a play park in Harold Hill, East London - pictured on Sunday

‘The Government say they are making a massive deal about knife crime. But are they really? Police and the CPS will have worked hard to get this case to court and the magistrates have just gone, “Don’t worry about it, off you go”.’ The case follows the fatal stabbings of three teenagers, which led to West Midlands police and crime commissioner David Jamieson declaring a ‘national emergency’.

Ministry of Justice figures show that 18 per cent of repeat knife offenders are not jailed, and a further 19 per cent escape immediate custody by getting a suspended sentence.

At Highbury Corner youth court in north London yesterday a 16-year-old thug, who had previously been caught with a knife and convicted of attempted robbery, was given a year-long rehabilitation order for brandishing a Rambo knife at a man in the street.

At Ealing magistrates’ court in west London, a 15-year-old boy caught with two blades was handed a 24-month youth rehabilitation order. The court was told the convicted thief had been groomed to sell drugs for a gang.