The family of a carer for autistic children stabbed to death say they are "disgusted" and "devastated" after their petition to help curb knife crime was scrapped.
Daniel Fox was killed after being slashed in the chest in St Helens town centre in 2016 by Leighton Holt, who admitted carrying the fearsome 11-inch butterfly blade.
The 29-year-old was stabbed after an argument over a cigarette, with the slashed blade fatally penetrating his lung and cutting his jugular vein.
But Holt, who argued he acted in self defence, was cleared after a jury failed to reach a verdict at two separate trials. He was finally jailed for eight and a half years after being caught minding a shotgun and raiding a supermarket.
An online petition started by the Fox family had successfully amassed 75,000 signatures, with a total of 100,000 needed to secure a debate on the subject in Parliament.
The campaign argued that a person carrying a knife should be brought in line with offenders with guns, with a mandatory and minimum five year punishment.
But because of the forthcoming General Election, on December 12, all e-petitions were automatically scrapped this week when Parliament was dissolved ahead of next month's vote.
The decision has shocked Mr Fox's family, who have called for it to be instead "frozen" and then restarted once a new government has been formed.
Dawn Jones, Daniel's aunt, told the ECHO: "We were doing our anti-knife presentations on Wednesday as normal, but afterwards, I had a million messages on my phone.
"Everyone was fuming the e-petition had been taken down.
"It's not on.
"It's absolutely disgusting.
"We did so much work with Adam Ellison's [stabbed to death in Prescot in November 2017] and we were running the petition jointly.
"People signed it in good faith and we were well on track for the February deadline.
"We were given no notice.
"Taking it down was horrendous."
After Holt's murder trial, he walked free from court after a jury failed to reach a verdict in a re-trial.
The 22-year-old thug, who has since been jailed for carrying a gun, has always argued he acted in self defence.
Holt claimed he feared being "beat to death" by Mr Fox and his friends.
Since walking free, Holt has now been jailed for eight and a half years after he was caught minding a double-barrelled shotgun, and also carrying out a supermarket raid in Wigan during which he sprayed bleach in a security officer's face.
When being sent down, he gave a middle-finger salute to Judge Clement Goldstone the Recorder of Liverpool.
After being cleared of murder, Holt told the ECHO, "No face, no case," covered his face with a hood as he was surrounded by laughing friends.
One of them made the devil’s horn sign with his fingers.
Mrs Jones, who lives in St Helens, and has a son a similar age to Mr Fox, added: "Both our family and Adam Ellison's family have never had justice.
"But we're still fighting.
"Anyone carrying a knife should get five years jail, not just a slap on the wrist.
"The Crown Prosecution Service are letting people off for carrying blades.
"Cancelling our petition is diabolical and it sends out the wrong message.
"We don't want any other families having to go through what we have.
"I understand the Parliament protocol, but I would have been happy for ours to be frozen and then re-started when the new government is formed.
"It's an epidemic.
"We want to sit down with the Home Secretary after December 12 and get our e-petition up and running again.
"It's left a lot of people very angry.
"On the last night before it was taken down, we got 5,000 signatures in just one night because of all the good work we've been doing."
A House of Commons spokesperson said: "Once a new Parliament is assembled, any business has to be started again from the beginning, by which point the political situation or context of an issue may have been changed.
"All petitions open will no longer be able to be signed and won't be reopened after the election."
