Top Ayr lawyer joins knife debate

Jan 23 2009 by Lisa Boyle

A TOP Ayr defence solicitor is swapping the court room for the Parliament.

Peter Lockhart has been asked by the Law Society to represent Scotland’s lawyers in a parliamentary debate on the battle against knife crime.

The debate, being held this Friday, has been scheduled after a petition was lodged by John Muir, whose son was stabbed to death in 2007.

Mr Lockhart will join representatives from the police, victim support and mothers against violence and aggression as well as Fergus Ewing MSP and the politicians of the future from the Scottish Youth Parliament.

Mr Lockhart will argue that mandatory prison sentences for carrying a knife should not be imposed.

He says that a Sheriff’s discretion should not be taken away and he will give examples where prison sentences were inappropriate, including a case where a man was convicted of possession of an offensive weapon when he was caught at an airport with a Swiss army knife used to open bottles.