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Launch of Serious Violence Strategy: Amber Rudd speech and cutaways; ENGLAND: London:INTAmber Rudd MP (Home Secretary) along to podium and speech SOT **Speech transcript - please check against delivery**- I want to start today by taking you back to the night of the 20 February in Camden, North London. A distraught mum watches her teenage son die after he’s stabbed outside a shop. She only realises it’s him after she calls his phone and it rings from his jacket pocket behind the police cordon. This young man is Abdikarim Hassan and he’s only 17. Less than 2 hours later - a separate incident. A promising accountant leaves a tragic voicemail for his mother after he too is fatally stabbed with a samurai sword just a few minutes’ walk away from the first murder. The victim tells his mum – “I’m wounded, I got wounded”. This second victim is Sadiq Aadam Mohamed and he’s the third in his family to be stabbed to death. His mother later tells a journalist that the family escaped to this country from Somalia for peace but “found only blood”. The family also release a statement. Violence is a “constant theme in our community” they say. “We have a lot of questions and need answers. Somebody has to listen to us”. And more recently – more tragic news. Devoy Stapleton stabbed to death in Wandsworth on Easter Sunday. Tanesha Melbourne-Blake gunned down in Tottenham. Amaan Shakoor fatally shot in Walthamstow. And Israel Ogunsola fatally stabbed in Hackney. In each of these cases the recurring question has been “why, why, why”? And as Home Secretary, I’ve been searching for the answer. That’s why last October, I commissioned a review into violent crime to explore why it is that there has been an increase in homicides, knife crime and gun crime and what we should do about it. I knew then, just as I do now, that this is a problem which we must get a grip on. And today I am pleased to announce that I am publishing our Serious Violence Strategy. This marks a major shift in the ...