Police 'not interested' after man finds knife in Doncaster park where teen was killed

The man found the large, rusting bread knife in Elmfield Park near to the spot where a 13-year-old was brutally murdered ten years ago.

The finder, who has asked not to be identifed, said that several knives have been found in the park in recent months and that police need to take the issue more seriously.

He said: “The park needs a good searching.

“It is not the only one to have been found in there.

"The police don’t seem to be doing anything, they are not interested.”

The man said he disposed of the knife in his dustbin at home after finding it near to the fountain in the park last week.

The park has been plagued by crime, anti-social behaviour in recent years with repeated calls for CCTV and improved lighting.

Last summer, the park was at the centre of a rape probe after a teenage girl was grabbed from behind and pushed to the ground by a 28-year-old man.

The incident was the latest in a series of attacks, robberies and sex assaults in the park which stretches between Bennetthorpe and Hyde Park.

And it comes amid a spiralling wave of knife crime which has seen a number of murders and attacks over the last 18 months which have seen Doncaster descend into gang wars with violence erupting across the city.

In recent years, the park has been attempting to shake off its unwanted tag as a crime hot spot with cash for improvements.

The most shocking incident was the killing of youngster Casey Kearney who was randomly attacked and stabbed to death as she walked through the park in 2012.

The 13-year-old was targeted by Hannah Bonser, 26, who had a history of mental health problems, as she strolled through Elmfield Park on Valentine’s Day of that year. She was jailed for life for the attack.

In May 2018, a 16-year-old boy fled into Elmfield Park after he was raped by a man nearby.

In August of the same year, a teenage boy was attacked and robbed of his bike by two other teenagers in the park, while in 2019, the body of a woman was found in a flat close to the park on Carr House Road and a murder investigation was launched.

Also in 2019, police launched a hunt for a missing Albanian mother and daughter who had last been spotted in the playground at the park while in the same year, officers revealed they were probing a number of robberies on teenagers in Elmfield Park.

In the last 18 months, police in Doncaster have been kept busy investigating a string of knife murders and attacks, with young men Ryan Theobald, Janis Kozlovskis and Joe Sarpong all losing their lives in city centre knife attacks.

We have contacted South Yorkshire Police for comment.