Police said that teenagers felt they had to carry a knife because of a perception that violence and knives were everywhere

Absent fathers and middle-class parents who work long hours are fuelling a rise in teenage knife crime, a senior police officer has claimed.

Jackie Sebire, assistant chief constable at Bedfordshire police and the national police lead for serious violence, said that local gang leaders and drug dealers were filling a vacuum caused by a lack of father figures.

She described how more and more teenagers felt they had to carry a knife because of a perception that violence and knives were everywhere. “Some of these kids are from very affluent areas”, she added. They fear that they could be attacked at any time, she said, so they carry knives and “have to use them”.

Speaking at a conference of the National Police Chiefs’ Council and