‘I was ready to stab whoever tried to stab me’ The ex-gang members waging a war on knife crime

“There’s a code that you don’t speak to the police, so you have to find another way to protect yourself,” says Daniel.

We are in a drill music recording studio in Birmingham. We have come here to talk frankly about why teenagers carry knives.

This is a city with a history of gang violence going back decades. But in more recent years younger people have been drawn into the postcode wars. Battles are fought over drugs and territory.

“A knife is one of the easiest things you can get,” Daniel, 27, says. “Every person has a knife in the house.”

Data reveals a shocking increase in the number of teenagers killed with a knife or sharp instrument.

In the year to March 2024, there were 53 teenage victims aged 13-19 in England and Wales, according to the Office for National Statistics. That is a 240% increase on the 22 teenage victims a decade earlier.

And some of the people dying are even younger.

In January, a 12-year-old was stabbed to death in Birmingham.

Leo Ross was fatally stabbed in the stomach as he walked home from school.

The government says it has a “mission” to halve knife crime over a decade.

These young people are not optimistic. They blame poverty, austerity and a lack of opportunities for driving teenagers growing up in the city to a life of crime.

Devontae

Devontae, 19, has witnessed fatal stabbings. He says it’s “very common” for people his age to carry knives.

“You’ve got postcode wars, postcode wars everywhere,” he says, referring to the battles fought between gangs protecting their territory.

“There’s this whole war going on that many people wouldn’t be aware of,” he explains.

“There are kids that, like, can’t even go to the shop without having the worry of getting stabbed… it’s getting beyond a joke.”

He adds: “It’s getting passed down from generation to generation and I don’t think it’ll stop. I reckon it’ll get worse.”

Daniel

“My own experience is I’ve been stabbed and I’ve been shot,” says Daniel, pointing to scars – one on his finger, others on his legs.

He says he began carrying a knife at the age of 14, around the time he was first stabbed.

He says it was “for my own protection, not because I wanted to be a gangster and not because I want to hurt nobody or scare anybody but for my own protection”.

He says he saw life on the streets as “it’s me or you and it’s not going to be me”.

“A knife is one of the easiest things you can get. It’s like a fork, right?

“Everyone, every single person has a knife… Some people might take one out to try to stab someone. Someone might take one out just to make sure that they’re safe”.

He ended up in prison. Since his release last year, he’s been mentoring teenagers, trying to steer them away from getting involved in street crime.

But he understands why so many get drawn in by the money they can earn selling drugs.

“Everyone likes the finer things of life”, he says, adding: “Nine to five is not buying that. And that’s just a simple fact.”

“The youths don’t want that. So when you’re telling the youths to leave the life of crime, you’ve got to give them an alternative”.

William

“I carried a knife from the age of 13. I got involved in a local gang growing up in central Birmingham,” says William, who is now 23.

He says he decided to start carrying a weapon after he was stabbed in the leg during a fight.

“The only way I could still be there and not be at risk of getting stabbed again is to be ready to stab whoever tried to stab me,” he explains.

Over the last decade, he’s seen more young people arming themselves.

“Some of it is literally the same as myself – protection. Other people are carrying them because they just simply don’t know how to have a fistfight.

He believes there’s no one explanation for why more teenagers carry knives but says “the biggest reason [is] the government. There’s no funding”.

“When I was a kid, there was funding, there was youth centres… Now there’s none in my local catchment.”

He says poverty and the cost of living crisis are to blame too.

“Parents having to work stupidly long hours – 40 to 60 hours a week – just to pay rent with the rent prices,” he says. “So children are going home to empty houses.”

‘We weren’t able to pursue the police route’

Rachel Warren set up the charity Birmingham Says No to campaign against knife crime and youth violence after her son was robbed at knifepoint when he was 15.

“Obviously that left me feeling very upset and angry,” she says.

“It was very difficult to know what to do. We weren’t able to pursue the police route, obviously for fear of reprisal.”

She says knife crime is such a complex issue that “for any organisation to say, you know, that they could solve knife crime, it’s not realistic. It’s never going to be realistic”.

A recent report by the YMCA found local authority expenditure on youth services has fallen by 73% in England since 2010.

The report also revealed there are 54% fewer local authority-run youth centres in England compared with 2011-2012.

The vice chair of the Local Government Association’s safer and stronger communities board, Councillor Tom Hunt, told Sky News: “Councils work hard to provide services that help to prevent people being drawn into serious, violent crime, and have a key role to play in responding when it occurs.

“However, ongoing financial pressures have had an impact on councils’ ability to provide services that can help address this issue.

“We are working with the government in developing the Young Futures Programme, but councils need resources to provide youth services”.

Policing minister Dame Diana Johnson told us: “Knife crime has a devastating impact on families and communities across our country. Our mission to halve knife crime over a decade will be delivered through tougher enforcement and stronger prevention.”