Knife crime: London man jailed over stabbing now anti-gang campaigner

BBC News

25-03-2025

"There is a war going on in the United Kingdom. If we don't do anything, things are going to get bad."Michael, who has just been released from prison after serving a sentence for stabbing a man, is speaking to me at location I cannot reveal as he is worried about reprisals.In April 2022, the then gang member attacked a rival on a busy shopping street in Maidstone. "I stabbed him three times. Luckily, he didn't die," he explains.The 24-year-old from south London went on to plead guilty to wounding with intent to do grievous bodily harm and was jailed for two years and eight months.
Reflecting on his attack, he explains to me why he did it."He beefs my crew, so I have to stab him so people can respect me," Michael says.When he was arrested three days later, he realised that "respect" meant nothing - he was alone in a cell, while the world outside moved on without him."Be ready to sit in a prison cell for hours and hours and hours, while people forget about you," he says.Michael was a member of a south London gang for most of his teenage years. There were a number of factors that led him towards that life, he says. When his father went to prison, he says his attendance at school dropped.As his mother worked long hours, she was unaware he was not going to school.
'I see 10 people trying to kill me'
He also describes how his family was struggling financially. "There's no food in the fridge, no electricity for one week. You are 15, thinking you have to provide for your family," he says.He explains how he got in with a group of youngsters who thought gang life was "cool" and offered respect in a world that gave them very little.In order to join the gang, he had to have something to offer, whether it be money or clout in the area.Michael says he offered the gang "recklessness" and would buy knives for the group, which included anything from machetes to zombie knives.He says he would conceal them in his tracksuit bottoms as he walked around the streets. He would also keep a folding knife in his pocket."I could walk past you now, and you would have no idea that I was carrying one."
As a teenager he also got into drill music under the name WoolyO. But his videos put a target on his back, he says, and led to him being targeted in a "honeytrap", which is a tactic frequently used by gangs.It involves an individual or individuals who assume a false identity to cultivate a relationship with the target online.In this instance, Michael says a woman lured him to a hotel where members of a rival gang were hiding."I look across. I just see 10 people emerging, running after me, trying to kill me."
'Dirty work'
Since Michael's release from prison, two teenagers have been killed in attacks in London.Kelyan Bokassa, 14, was stabbed on a London bus in Woolwich in January, while 16-year-old Lathaniel Burrell was shot in Stockwell on 4 March. Michael wants to help prevent such deaths. He hopes to encourage young people to reject gang life, which he believes "makes no sense".He says he thinks very few youngsters actually know why they are attacking each other.The south Londoner is calling on older gang members to stop using teenagers to do their "dirty work".He also wants the government to start investing more in families who are struggling in the UK, rather than in conflicts overseas.