THE victim of a brutal knife attack on London’s Tube showed school pupils how five seconds of mayhem can inflict up to 15 injuries, any one of them potentially fatal.
Leon Hobson, a Fearless Outreach Worker for Crimestoppers, used a felt tip pen and a white t-shirt to demonsrate the catastrophic effects of knife crime at a workshop at lydney’s Dean Academy.
The session for Year YEAR Eight students at the Dean Academy in Lydney got right to the point as part of the ‘Fearless’ campaign run by the crime prevention charity.
Leon, who was attacked 13 years ago, showed how real-life situations can get out of hand very quickly, and how people can make the wrong choices without considering the long-term consequences of their actions.
Having worked with people who have committed knife crimes, the Cheltenham 37-year-old told pupils: “People carry knives for all sorts of reasons, the most common being protection and peer pressure.
“Thirteen years ago I was a victim of knife crime and was stabbed in the back and my arm whilst on the Tube in London.
“My attacker chose to carry a knife and in the heat of the moment he made the decision to use it.
“If you carry a knife, you are intending to cause someone serious damage. It is important to make the right choices and choose a different ending.”
He was attacked without warning on a night out when sommeone shouted at his group and they shouted back.
While Leon wasn’t too seriously hurt, his friend had to be airlifted to hospital and took months to recover, and one inch to the left and it would have been a very different story. Linda Bellingham, Dean Academy’s deputy safeguarding lead, said: “Our students really engaged with the session.
“Leon presented some very informative and interactive sessions on the facts, incidence and realities of knife crime.
“Using a felt tip pen and a white t-shirt he demonstrated how a five-second fight could inflict up to 15 random injuries, any of which would have been fatal.”
The campaign aims to educate and empower young people with information and advice about crimes that might affect them personally, their friends or their family.
Young people can pass on information about crime to Fearless.org completely anonymously and safely.