DRUG PERIL WARNING TO EVERY PARENT IN MIDDLE ENGLAND TOWN
THOUSANDS of parents have been warned that their children are in danger of falling prey to county lines gangs in an affluent market town ‘poisoned’ by drugs.
Head teachers in every secondary in Bury St Edmunds have written to families urging them to attend a public meeting ‘ to protect the young people from the increasing risks they face’.
The extraordinary move comes as the Mail today reveals the scandal of a boy from the Suffolk town who became a killer at 17 after being recruited by a gang to peddle drugs in his school lunch hour from the age of 13.
Kieran Hayward was a popular child from a loving and hardworking family based in a quiet cul-de-sac.
He descended into a hardened drug dealer who used Premier Inn hotel rooms to sell crack cocaine after being forced out of his secondary school. For four years, his parents battled to save the teenager, appealing to every official body. But last month Hayward was jailed for life at Ipswich Crown Court for stabbing an addict to death with a knife.
A day beforehand he had arranged for a gang member to buy him a machete from a shop in Southend. Today a Daily Mail investigation can reveal how:
■Hayward started dealing drugs in his lunch hour at school, but police and teachers allegedly stood by, saying they could do nothing;
■When the 15-year-old was kicked out of classes, his school arranged for him to do online tuition from home for barely an hour a day, leaving him free to sell drugs;
■Astonishingly, after he went missing and was discovered living in a drugs den, his parents say the police dropped him off at a train station so he could head back there;
■Social services discharged the teenager several times, telling his parents there was little they could do.
During his six-week trial in August, Hayward was described as a boy from a ‘thoroughly decent’ family who sent him to an outstanding secondary, County Upper in Bury St Edmunds.
This wasn’t enough to save him from the clutches of a drugs gang.
The school, which was heavily criticised in a recent Ofsted report for ‘safeguarding weaknesses’, refused to comment on the case.
It has joined with nine other secondary schools to warn parents about the dangers of drug gangs. On Monday, Colin Shaw, of West Suffolk College, wrote to parents inviting them to a public meeting on Monday.
He said: ‘We are writing to you collectively as the head teachers and principals of the schools and colleges in and around Bury St Edmunds about the rapidly growing issue of county lines in this area.
‘Our aim is to help protect the young people in Bury from the increasing risks they face and to take a common approach to this problem.’
He added: ‘Our group is also looking at how to ensure that we take a firm, consistent line in situations where drug activity is brought into our schools and colleges whilst also ensuring that those involved receive appropriate support and guidance.’
Yesterday Tim Passmore, Suffolk’s police and crime commissioner, attacked the ‘ poisonous impact’ of county lines gangs that infect prosperous towns and villages.
An estimated 2,000 of the drugs networks make £500million a year from their vile trade.
Mr Passmore said: ‘County lines is an issue nationally and sadly it is having a poisonous impact in Suffolk.
‘I applaud this proactive, firm stance of head teachers in the west of our county. It’s crucial that parents recognise these signs.’
Suffolk County Council said: ‘County lines is a national issue that public services across the country are working proactively together to tackle.
‘This talk on November 11 is about our wider prevention work to highlight the issue.’
A Suffolk Police spokesman said: ‘Local officers discussed and agreed strategies with Kieran’s parents on how to best manage his episodes of going missing and what was the best way to convince him to return home.’
He said an officer drove him home to see his mother ‘on the basis that they would drop him back in town afterwards’ – not knowing he would return to the drugs den.
‘Take a common approach’
KIERAN Hayward was a popular schoolboy from a loving family. His future gleamed brightly.
But aged just 13, he was groomed by a ruthless county lines gang to peddle drugs miles from home – and enmeshed in a depraved web. Last month, the baby-faced teenager, now 17, was jailed for life for a brutal knife murder.
In a heart-wrenching interview today, his parents describe how their son was lured off the rails by the promise of easy money – and their unsuccessful struggle to persuade the authorities to help.
Shockingly, this evil underworld wasn’t on some savage inner-city estate. Kieran lived in sleepy Bury St Edmunds. Indeed, so serious is the threat, the town’s schools are now warning parents to be extra vigilant.
Home Secretary Priti Patel has pledged 20,000 more police officers to crack crime across Britain. One of their first priorities must be tackling this pernicious trade.