'I carried a knife because I wanted to be a gangster ... but I was exploited by criminals'

Boy's descent into murky underworld of county lines drug-dealing - and how he escaped from it

- Sentinel Reporter

'I WANTED to be a gangster' - the words of a young man who was just 13 when he was groomed by criminal gangs in Stoke-on-Trent.

Soon the man - who does not want to be identified - was carrying a knife as he tried to fit in with others in his neighbourhood.

“The signs must have been there but at the time I just didn’t realise it. I surrounded myself with the wrong crowd, people who weren't interested in an education and making something of themselves.”

Before long he was skipping school and getting into trouble with the law. “Social media and music fed into the whole thing, glamorising knives and the idea that carrying a knife was somehow cool,” he says.

“I started not listening to teachers, stealing and bunking off school. Carrying a knife made me feel like I was on top. I got caught a few times for possession but it didn’t stop me because it was just a lifestyle. I started by carrying a knife and ended up being groomed by criminals.”

But things got much worse.