Stop giving daggers to retiring soldiers, says coroner after Somerset murders

[Still Waters]

A senior coroner has called on the British military to stop handing out ceremonial daggers to retiring service personnel after hearing how a couple were stabbed to death by a former soldier using one.

Collin Reeves was presented with one of the weapons when he left the army in 2017 and four years later used it to murder his neighbours Stephen and Jennifer Chapple after a row over parking.

Reeves was jailed for a minimum of 38 years for stabbing the Chapples in their Somerset home while their children slept upstairs.

The Somerset senior coroner, Samantha Marsh, has written to the defence secretary, Ben Wallace, and the Ministry of Defence expressing her concerns about the knives.

https://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2023/mar/08/stop-giving-daggers-to-ex-soldiers-says-coroner-after-somerset-murders