Children are responsible for almost a third of stabbings in Victoria, with knife attacks involving offenders aged under 18 surging 30 per cent in just a year despite the State’s unprecedented ban on machetes.
Exclusive Victoria Police figures obtained by The Nightly reveal children account for 31 per cent of stabbing attacks, with the number of child offenders jumping from 137 to 178 over the past year.
The alarming rise comes almost a year after Victoria became the first State in Australia to outlaw machetes amid an escalating youth crime crisis.
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Victoria Police data shows overall stabbings fell 13 per cent over the same period – from 718 to 619 – while officers seized a record 17,438 knives and edged weapons in 2025 and almost 10,000 since the beginning of this year.
But when asked whether the machete ban had reduced the possession or use of the weapons – and whether offenders were simply switching to other knives – Premier Ben Carroll’s Government did not answer.
Instead, a Victorian Government spokesperson pointed to the number of weapons surrendered and a broader suite of tougher crime laws.
“There are too many victims and not enough consequences – that’s why we’ve delivered major reforms, including Adult Time for Violent Crime, Australia’s toughest bail laws, and the nation’s first ban on machetes with expanded police search powers,” the spokesperson said.
“What we know works are expanded search powers for Victoria Police. Operation Pulse is putting those powers into action, with more than 248 weapons seized and 800 more wands being provided to Victoria Police to detect these dangerous weapons and keep them off our streets.
“Through our tough reforms, more than 18,000 weapons were surrendered through the machete ban and amnesty, on top of the 17,000 seized by Victoria Police last year.”
Machetes became prohibited weapons in Victoria on September 1 last year, making it illegal to own, carry, transport, buy or sell one without an exemption or approval.
The Government has since announced children who commit specified violent crimes will face adult sentences in adult courts, while a new standalone offence for using a knife while committing certain indictable offences will carry up to an additional three years behind bars.
Yet despite the increasingly severe penalties, children continue to be killed, maimed and traumatised at the hands of other kids wielding blades.
Last month, 15-year-old Darweish Mohamed was found critically wounded after being stabbed outside Craigieburn Community Hospital on a Wednesday night.
A medical worker desperately performed CPR on the high school student in the hospital car park, but he died at the scene.
Three teenagers aged 14, 15 and 16 have been charged with his murder. A court has heard the eldest was on bail at the time.
In a separate attack last month, another 15-year-old boy was walking home from school with two classmates in Cranbourne North when police allege three hooded teenagers descended on them with knives and machetes.
Police said the group approached from behind shouting a “war cry”, before chasing the boy through a park and allegedly stabbing him.
The teenager made it back towards his school before collapsing with severe stab wounds to his back, arms, hands and neck, but survived after emergency surgery. Three boys aged 15, 15 and 17 have been charged.
Other ordinary Victorians have been caught in similarly terrifying blade attacks.
Last August, a 39-year-old father was allegedly stabbed 11 times in the face, neck and arms when a group armed with a machete, knife and garden shears broke into his Kew East home. Police alleged the house had been chosen at random.
Weeks earlier, 33-year-old Saurabh Anand had simply gone to an Altona Meadows shopping centre to collect a prescription when a group of teenagers allegedly attacked him with a machete.
His arm and hand were almost severed. Four teenagers aged 14 and 15 were charged.
In March, 22-year-old Aidan Becker was fatally stabbed at Mernda train station after intervening to rescue a 14-year-old boy from an alleged machete attack.
Police allege Aidan, who was on his way home from work, was then set upon. Four teenagers aged 16 to 18 have been charged with his murder.
Among the young lives lost to Victoria’s senseless knife violence are Chol Achiek, 12, and Dau Akueng, 15.
Dau Akueng and Chol Achiek were allegedly murdered while walking home from basketball. Credit: Supplied
On September 6 last year, the two boys and a 14-year-old friend were walking home from basketball when a group pulled up in a vehicle and ambushed them.
Chol and Dau were chased through suburban streets and fatally stabbed within about 150m of one another. Their friend escaped.
A court has heard the victims were “completely unknown” to the youth gangs allegedly involved.
Five teenagers and three men have pleaded not guilty to murder and been committed to stand trial.
The deaths echo another teenage killing examined in detail by Victorian Coroner Ingrid Giles last year.
Darweish Mohamed was found by a medical centre worker with fatal stab wounds. Credit: AAP
Solomone Taufe’ulungaki, 15, was walking with school friends in Deer Park in June 2020 when they encountered a group of 10 boys.
Later, he was chased across a library car park, knocked down, punched, kicked and struck with weapons as he tried to protect himself. A single stab from a nine-centimetre paring knife pierced his heart.
The coronial investigation revealed 245 knife homicides occurred in Victoria between January 2014 and September 2025 and identified an increasing trend in child offenders being involved in knife murders.
Victoria Police statistics show 51 per cent of stabbings occur in residential settings, 19 per cent are family violence-related and almost 80 per cent of victims in non-family-violence stabbings have previous criminal offending, with criminal disputes a common theme.
Adults remain the most common victims, although 34 per cent of stabbing victims are aged under 25.
“Victoria Police intelligence shows stabbings have decreased by 13 per cent over the past year,” Deputy Commissioner Bob Hill told The Nightly.
“This has coincided with police continuing to remove a high number of knives from the community, with almost 10,000 seized since the start of the year.
“While most stabbings occur behind closed doors, we absolutely understand that when knife crime plays out on our streets this has a significant impact on how safe people feel within our community.”
Police say feuding youth gangs are often at the centre of public stabbings, including larger affrays.
“However, there unfortunately have been some tragic exceptions where innocent people have been harmed or killed,” Deputy Commissioner Hill said.
“Many young offenders have a misguided belief that carrying a knife means they are protected.
“However, experience tells us the more likely outcomes are far more dire – incarceration, lifelong injuries or death.”
Police say they continue to target those carrying weapons in several ways.
“Operation Alliance detectives are knocking on the doors of youth gang members daily – conducting search warrants, ensuring they’re complying with bail conditions, and saturating locations they are known to visit and offend,” Deputy Commissioner Hill said.
“Police and PSOs also continue to patrol Melbourne’s biggest shopping centres as part of Operation Pulse, preventing crime and seizing about 250 weapons from these locations since December last year.
“Victoria Police runs regular patrols as well as targeted weapons operations across the rail network to keep the community safe.”
Police also monitor the online sale of edged weapons and provide intelligence to Australian Border Force around the supply of illegal weapons into the country.
A knife attack can take only seconds. For the families of those killed, the consequences last a lifetime.
Clinical psychologist Lisa Burke said the bereaved could find themselves only beginning to comprehend the permanence of their loss just as the initial wave of support falls away.
Chol Achiek, 12, and Dau Akueng, 15, were killed walking home from basketball on suburban streets. Credit: AAP
“People around gradually return to the rhythms of their everyday life, while the bereaved person is still trying to comprehend a life that has been fundamentally altered,” she said.
After a violent death, she said, families could be forced to confront “two realities at once”.
“That someone they love has died, and that another person’s violent actions caused that.”
