A rising level of prosecutions for carrying knives has prompted a call for a fresh Cumbrian weapons amnesty - and better education about the deadly potential of such weapons.

It was a year ago today that Carlisle schoolboy Jordan Watson was brutally stabbed to death.

A popular and caring 14-year-old, he was lured to Upperby Cemetery late at night by weapons fanatic George Thomson, 19, who wanted Jordan out of the way because he was obsessed with his girlfriend.

Thomson was helped by his friend Brahnn Finley, 19, and both were convicted of the schoolboy's murder.

A second man who also helped Thomson, 20-year-old Daniel Johnston, was convicted of manslaughter. All three are currently serving jail terms.

With the tragedy still fresh in the minds of all who were affected by it, the Ministry of Justice this week published its latest statistics on prosecutions for carrying knives in public.

In Cumbria in the year to the end of March, 152 people in the county were prosecuted for having a knife in a public place – 15 more cases than in the same period last year.

That represents an 11 per cent increase in prosecutions.

“Knife crime is threatening our communities,” said Cumbrian MP Tim Farron, who leads the Liberal Democrats.

“I am extremely concerned that it is on the rise here in Cumbria. We need an amnesty to help get these dangerous weapons off our streets. These have been shown to be effective in the past.

“In the long-run, this shows why we must protect our police numbers from government cuts. Knife crime will make local residents, particularly the elderly, afraid to go out on the streets.”

Mr Farron, the county's South Lakes MP, said there should be more done to educate young people who are perhaps most at risk of being drawn into a dangerous knife culture.

“We should be working with schools and youth groups,” he said.

“We need to make people more aware of the potentially horrific consequences of carrying these weapons. It's said that those carrying knives are more likely to be hurt themselves.

“Then there are the legal consequences that people face if they are caught and prosecuted for carrying a knife. It can lead to a long custodial sentence, and that has a long-term impact on a person's life.

“As we know, this is an issue that does not affect just places like Manchester, Newcastle, and London. There are people in Cumbria now who are living with the tragic consequences of knife crime.

“That's why it's massively important to tackle this.”

Carlisle MP John Stevenson said he would support any initiative which takes such dangerous weapons out of circulation.

He said that crimes as horrific as the murder of Jordan Watson were thankfully rare in Cumbria, where crime generally is low, but he added:

“Such crimes as the one that happened here a year ago are shocking.

“So we have to take whatever measures we can to contain and reduce crime. We all need to be vigilant that we don't allow a culture of crime and violence to develop in any way.

“Anything we can do to support that should be supported.”

The latest figures on knife possession prosecutions in Cumbria do not include other crimes in which knives were used – including robberies and assaults. There have been several worrying recent examples.

They include:

* February: Thug Darren Lee Johnson, 39, held a knife to the throat of a terrified woman during a street robbery in Carlisle. It happened in the daytime on Welsh Road, Harraby. Johnson was jailed for five years.

*February: Robert Phillips, 29, and Tony Lockwood, 20, were jailed for the knife-point robbery of a woman in Close Street, Carlisle. They were jailed for eight years and six years respectively.

* June: A 15-year-old girl was stabbed and seriously wounded in Barepot, Workington. She needed emergency treatment after what police said was an unprovoked attack. A man has denied attempted murder.

* April: homeless teenager James Conway, 19, was jailed for six months at Carlisle Crown Court after he admitted criminal damage and taking a knife with him to a Whitehaven park. A concerned eyewitness called the police.

The threat posed by knife culture was underlined by Cumbria's latest weapons amnesty, which ran from April 4 to April 18.

Though the weapons handed in included eight revolver pistols, 19 unlicensed shotguns, and seven semi-automatic pistols, by far the biggest category of weapon surrendered was knives.

In total, across Cumbria, the number of knives handed in was 218.