‘My teenage son was killed by a ninja sword. I had to fight to ban them’
The Daily T
The Telegraph
4.1 • 706 Ratings
🗓️ 30 January 2026
⏱️ 41 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
Knife crime in the UK has reached “national epidemic” levels, with 53,000 offences recorded in England and Wales in the year to March 2025. But how has this tragedy become so dangerously normalised, and what is the Labour government actually doing to tackle it?
We look into the tragic killing of 16-year-old Ronan Kanda, who was murdered in 2022 with a ninja sword purchased online by two 17-year-olds in a case of mistaken identity.
Ronan’s mother, Pooja Kanda, joins us to discuss the campaign that led to ‘Ronan’s Law’ - banning these deadly weapons and increasing sentences for illegal sales. Pooja also talks about the now-closed company, DNA Leisure, which sold the sword that killed Ronan and is linked to multiple teenage murders.
Plus, we’re joined by The Telegraph’s crime editor, Martin Evans, to break down the latest government response, including the new Knife Licensing Consultation and the launch of the National Knife Crime Coordination Centre.
We want to hear from you! Email us at thedailyt@telegraph.co.uk or find @dailytpodcast on TikTok, Instagram and X
► Sign up to our most popular newsletter, From the Editor. Look forward to receiving free-thinking comment and the day's biggest stories, every morning. telegraph.co.uk/fromtheeditor
Producer: Georgia Coan
Senior Producer: John Cadigan
Executive Producer: Charlotte Seligman
Video Producer: Will Walters
Studio Operator: Meghan Searle
Social Producer: Nada Aggour
Editor: Camilla Tominey
Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
Transcript
Click on a timestamp to play from that location
| 0:00.0 | The Telegraph. |
| 0:05.0 | Britain has a knife crime issue. |
| 0:12.0 | Young people are killing each other with bladed weapons. |
| 0:15.0 | We speak to Pugacanda, whose son Ronan was murdered with a ninja sword |
| 0:20.0 | and discuss what can be done to prevent other parents losing their children. |
| 0:25.6 | Welcome to The Daily Tea with me Tim Stanley. |
| 0:28.0 | And me, Camilla Tomoney. Tim, there's a great deal of confusion, |
| 0:43.3 | and we've actually discussed it on this podcast about crime and the level of crime in the UK. |
| 0:48.3 | We're going to narrow in on knife crime. |
| 0:51.4 | Yes. |
| 0:51.8 | Because a little later in the Daily Tea, we're going to be speaking to the mother of a boy |
| 0:57.5 | called Ronan who was killed as a case of mistaken identity with a ninja sword. |
| 1:04.7 | And it's her horrific tragedy, but it speaks to a wider problem, particularly in the teenage generation, with young men |
| 1:14.6 | involved in gangs, freely being able to access machetes, zombie knives and ninja swords, |
| 1:22.6 | despite various government legislation trying to stop their sale. |
| 1:29.1 | So we're going to get into that specifically. |
| 1:32.5 | But the crime stat issue, it came up with Layla Cunningham. |
| 1:35.2 | She's the reform candidate for Mayor of London. |
| 1:38.2 | She says that London's never been more lawless. |
| 1:40.1 | But there are competing statistics. |
| 1:43.6 | There are some on the right who say that we've hit sort of peak violence, |
| 1:46.8 | casual stabbing, gangland stuff. And there are some on the right who say that we've hit sort of peak violence, casual stabbing, gangland stuff. |
... |
Please login to see the full transcript.
Disclaimer: The podcast and artwork embedded on this page are from The Telegraph, and are the property of its owner and not affiliated with or endorsed by Tapesearch.
Generated transcripts are the property of The Telegraph and are distributed freely under the Fair Use doctrine. Transcripts generated by Tapesearch are not guaranteed to be accurate.
Copyright © Tapesearch 2026.