'The two hours after school were the most dangerous!' Teenager reflects on carrying knife at 12 years old and being stabbed as a schoolboy
In the latest instalment of the Express & Star's series of knife crime features Adam Smith interviews a teenager who has carried a blade from the age of 12.
Children under 16 are most at risk of being stabbed on their journey home from school, one teenager has told the Express & Star.
The man explained what it is like living at the sharp end of knife crime in the Black Country.
Speaking on condition of anonymity, the teenager, who we have called Leon, said carrying a knife is considered essential by many.
Normal people have to remember their keys, phone and earphones before they leave their home but when Leon forgot his knife he believed it was “a matter of life and death”.
Now 18 years old, Leon, from Smethwick, remembers how he carried a knife every time he left home between the ages of 12 and 17, claiming: “It was the only protection I had.”
He added: “Even if it meant I would to be late for school, I would turn back if I had forgotten my knife. I did not feel safe without it.”
Leon claims he involved in several serious incidents involving knives before he was aged 15. None of them were reported to the police. He said: “I was stabbed when I was 12, slashed down my back after I got into an argument outside McDonald’s. It was over nothing but we started fighting and I won, we got separated and that was that.
