Widow of Aberdeen stabbing murder victim calls for weapons surrender scheme
Linda Taylor, whose husband Keith Taylor was killed in a double murder at a flat in Tillydrone in July 2016, is calling for an amnesty to take weapons off the streets.
Almost nine years on, Linda is calling for police and the government to come together to offer an ongoing knife surrender scheme that will take weapons out of circulation.
There are currently no officially sanctioned initiatives that would allow people to hand over knives without the risk of prosecution.
Police at the scene of the Donside Court murders. Image: DC Thomson
Speaking from her home in Aberdeenshire, Linda, who suffers from depression and PTSD as a result of her experiences, told the Press and Journal that it is only now, with the benefit of counselling, that she is able to contemplate taking action to prevent others from suffering the same senseless loss that she has.
She said: “What happened in 2016 is still affecting me today.
“I still have nightmares, I still miss him every day, you have good days and you have bad days.”
Linda said she lives with a sense of survivors’ guilt, having left the flat only minutes before the attack so that she could watch an episode of the television show NCIS at her own neighbouring flat.
She said: “The police told me if you had stayed you wouldn’t be alive either.”
Ongoing agony
But living without her husband and neighbour has been its own challenge for Linda, who says that regular news stories about stabbing incidents haunt her.
She said: “There are thousands and thousands of people in the same situation I am – it is not just me, it happens to so many families.
“It doesn’t go away. I am still wearing my wedding ring, I am still wearing my engagement ring. Sometimes, on days that I struggle, I wear his wedding ring as well. It just doesn’t go away.
“You see all those articles coming by with another stabbing, another shooting, and every time I read it I am like: ‘Oh my God!’ I feel for the family.
Linda now wants to make it a priority to help reduce the number of families that find themselves in the same situation as her – by ensuring those involved in violent lifestyles are offered an opportunity to walk away from their weapons and choose a different path.
She said: “I think the people who are doing the crimes, the murders, I don’t think they have any idea.
Victim’s families handed ‘life sentence’
“But the family of who they killed are basically handed a life sentence.”
Linda said she contacted Police Scotland to find out what arrangements there are for weapons surrender in the Aberdeen area, but was unable to find any information.
She then became concerned that there were no viable options for those holding potentially deadly weapons, who wished to remove them from circulation.
Explaining how this made her feel she said: “I feel terrible – I don’t understand it. They did it years ago – why has it stopped?”
Knife crime has become increasingly common across Britain in recent years.
The Press and Journal approached the Scottish Government, which told us: “The Scottish Violence Prevention Framework for Scotland, backed by more than £4m of Scottish Government investment since 2023, supports a range of partnership activities to prevent and reduce the harm from violence.
“This includes funding for the Scottish Violence Reduction Unit and for YouthLink Scotland’s No Knives, Better Lives programme, which has reached 274 young people and provided training to over 700 practitioners working with young people across Scotland last year. While it may be of little comfort to victims, non-sexual violent crime is down by 58% since 2008-09.
“Measures to tackle knife crime are always kept under review to help ensure the safety of all communities, and weapon amnesties are operational matters for Police Scotland.”
No current surrender initiatives
A spokesperson for Police Scotland said: “There are no current surrender initiatives ongoing.
“We facilitated the Surrender & Compensation Scheme which was legislated for by the UK Government in relation to the introduction of the Offensive Weapons Act 2019. This ran from 1 July to 30 September, 2022.”
They added: “The decision on how to proceed in cases involving weapons is assessed on the threat, risk and harm presented to officers or staff at the time.
“It is important to note that each case is evaluated on its individual merits, considering all relevant factors and applicable legislation.
“The safety of the public and prevention of crime are always paramount.
Talking about the lack of clear pathway to weapons surrender Linda said: “The government is blaming it on Police Scotland and Police Scotland is blaming it on the government – back and forth – and at the moment nobody is doing anything.”
She added: “This needs to stop and it needs to stop right now.”
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