A senior Scotland Yard officer has called on the court system to back up the work of police by using the sentencing powers handed to them to their full extent, in an effort to make prison an actual deterrent to would-be offenders.

Remarking that it is “challenging” when police work means a successful prosecution is brought against a knife criminal but the judge hands out a light sentence, Assistant Commissioner Martin Hewitt said efforts by the police to put criminals behind bars had to be “followed through in the courts”.

Speaking to Sky News, the senior officer also said offenders should get rehabilitation in prison to prevent them from reoffending.

There were 80 fatal stabbings in London in 2017 — the highest number for years.

The appeal to courts and prisons to back up the police comes as gun crime in London surges by 44 per cent in three years, with the number of gangland shootings rising by 13 per cent in just one year, reports the Evening Standard.

Breitbart London reported earlier in January on the surge of almost all crime types in London under Mayor Sadiq Khan. Among other statistical rises, 2015/16 to 2016/17, homicides in London rose by 27.1 per cent, with youth homicide, in particular, jumping 70 per cent.

Serious youth violence was up 19 per cent, robbery was up 33.4 per cent, while home burglaries rose by 18.7 per cent.

Taking a break from his usual politicking over global issues to address a uniquely London problem, Khan responded to an oral question in at the city Assembly last week to admit he “can not solve knife crime by myself”.

Despite that, Mayor Khan has launched knife crime initiatives of his own, announcing in January shortly after the release of the city’s embarrassing crime figures a new programme of knife detecting wands to London schools.

Estimated to cost some £10,000 a year, Khan’s city hall did not intend to assess how effective the money would be in reducing knife crime. Schools were not be asked to record how many times the wands were used, nor how many knives were confiscated.