How the Streatham terrorist exploited a loophole in our knife laws

When I worked at Lidl, there were a few products that we took extra care with. Some of these were high-value goods at risk of being stolen (like the £100 laptop we once sold, causing biblical scenes of chaos in the middle aisle). Others were to comply with laws on selling dangerous goods. Knives were always locked up behind the till. In Lidl’s Tooting branch, in a relatively rough area near Streatham, the knives were all taken out of their boxes and locked up in the managers’ office. To purchase, you’d have to show ID and wait at a till as a manager brought back the knife.

So how was it possible that Sudesh Amman, barely out of his teenage years, was able to swipe a knife from a local high street shop? It turns out that the ten-inch knives there were left on display, something Amman had sussed out the week before when he visited the shop.