Kevin Dowling
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Teenage stab victim Ben Kinsella wrote to Gordon Brown weeks before his death, urging the Prime Minister to stamp out knife crime.
The 16-year-old, who was stabbed to death last weekend, wrote the letter as part of his English GCSE coursework, suggesting parenting classes, curfews and youth clubs as possible solutions.
He accused the Government of standing by as teenagers were killed on the streets, and said violence was becoming “part of our culture”.
“Problems like this will continue to grow unless change starts to happen,” he wrote.”Society needs to see a difference before it’s too late.”
Ben, the brother of former EastEnders actress Brooke Kinsella, was stabbed repeatedly in York Way, Islington, north London, at about 2am last Sunday.
The letter begins: “Youth violence hits deadly peak. When will it stop?”
He set out figures to highlight the extent of the problem and said it was “heartbreaking” that so many young people were fighting.
Ben suggested a key factor was the lack of respect and trust between parents and children, which could lead to youths staying out on the streets late into the night and taking part in violent behaviour.
“Parents need to consider bringing their children to parenting classes to build a relationship or else lose them for good,” he wrote.
Ben cited the example of New York becoming safer under strong leadership from mayors and put forward ideas to solve the problem in the UK such as building youth clubs so teens were “not sitting around looking for fights with innocent bystanders” and introducing a 10pm curfew for under-18s.
“These solutions can be very easily carried out, and there’s a guarantee if they were, there would be a staggering change in a relatively short space of time,” he wrote.
In a poignant end to the letter, Ben appealed to Mr Brown, writing: “Let’s not think about what it will lead to in the future. Let’s think about how we can change this now.”
On Tuesday, up to 400 protesters marched in Islington, to the scene of the killing to demand an end to knife crime.
Juress Kika, 18, Michael Alleyne, 18, and Jade Braithwaite, 19, appeared at Highbury Corner Magistrates’ Court yesterday and were remanded in custody until October 13.
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