How a 'good boy' from Longbridge got sucked into a knife gang culture

KEN was just 14 when he became drawn into gang culture.

- STEPHANIE BALLOO

He was sheltered from that life style until he became friends with pupils who had moved to his Longbridge following their expulsion from inner city schools.

Under their influence, he started carrying a knife and became involved in a street robbery. Once, he found himself three hours from home, dealing drugs in a county lines operation.

Ken's story is not unique and shows how easily ‘good’ children are lured into gangs.

He was one of the lucky ones to survive. Two of his friends were killed.

With the help of social services and Birmingham Children’s Trust, he turned his life around to pursue a music career and performed at the Commonwealth Games.

Now a youth worker, Ken spoke about the problem of knife crime, how he found himself in a gang and how he escaped a life of crime.

How did your teenage years look?

When I was younger, the only time I socialised was at school and one hour after school before I had to go home.

In year 11, when I got a bit more freedom, I met new people, some of who were getting kicked out other schools from other areas and started joining my school.

Longbridge is not really a gang area, it's a calm area. I didn’t know about that lifestyle until one of my friends moved from a different area.

He'd experienced a gang life and when he came back, he started to tell us certain stories.

That's when I started to know about people getting stabbed, people carrying knives and stuff, but living a gang life, I didn’t really know about that.

Surely it's scary knowing that people get stabbed? Why would you want to be a part of that?

When you're first doing it, I was just having fun - chilling, that’s the word. You're just having a ‘vibe’ around certain people.

It’s not like I was thinking, ‘I want to become a gang member! You're chilling in a certain environment and that atmosphere starts to draw you in slowly without you knowing.