Streets where knife culture spreads fear
Am emerging cycle of tit-for-tat stabbings among youngsters is leaving residents feeling exasperated and unsafe in their own neighbourhoods, writes
COLLYHURST and Moston Boxing Club is about as close to the heart of north Manchester as you can get.
The historic building sits on the corner of Oscar Street and Lightbowne Road, one of the main arterial routes that takes you either south to Newton Heath, or north towards Chadderton and Blackley.
On the opposite corner to the gym is Kenyon Lane, which runs up to Moston Lane and then west to Harpurhey.
These are neighbourhoods with a proud heritage, former townships that were absorbed into Manchester during the cotton industry explosion of the 19th century.
The rows of terraced houses have made modest but respectable homes for generations of families.
It makes it all the more heartbreaking to hear locals – especially young people – speak so negatively about the area.
For several years now, the M.E.N. has been reporting all too frequently from a crime scene in north Manchester.
In the past fortnight alone, we have been to three incidents in Moston, including a gun found in Broadhurst Park and a stabbing on Moston Lane.
On September 25, there was a stabbing directly outside the boxing club. A 17-year-old boy was attacked while he sat in a car at around 5pm on a Saturday.
The suspects arrived on scooters, wearing balaclavas and armed with a knife, and stabbed him in the chest. The teenage victim managed to stumble into the McColl’s shop beneath the gym and ask for help.
Fortunately, he escaped serious injury and has since been discharged from hospital, the M.E.N understands. A 16-year-old boy was arrested on suspicion of assault.
Tommy McDonagh, who runs Collyhurst and Moston Boxing Club, heard about the incident and says he wasn’t shocked.
“We didn’t even close the gym,” he said. “It’s common now.
“When I was growing up there were certain areas you thought people might have knives – now it seems like everyone has them.”
As well as running the club, Tommy also runs a mentoring programme for local children at risk of exclusion from school.
He says the stabbing incidents that result in police turning up don’t even give a full picture of what’s going on.
“It’s all the near misses and threats you hear about as well,” he said.
“We’re always hearing ‘so and so is saying he’s going to stab somebody.’ Lads who we know have got jobs, that are from good families – you would be shocked at who is carrying knives.
“You think, where is this coming from?”
Violent crime has been on the increase across the country since around 2014, with a particular spike in murders, knife crime and gun crime.
Obtaining official figures from Greater Manchester Police has been difficult in recent years, due to a technical blunder in the way the force recorded knife crime discovered in 2017 and, more recently, the well-documented issues with its new IT system iOps.
However, in the 12-month period before iOps was introduced in July 2019 GMP said it was receiving an average of nine reports of knife crime per day.
Some of these incidents relate to domestic assaults or to drunken fights.
But tragically, there appears to be a pattern emerging of tit-for-tat stabbings, mainly involving groups of young lads in Manchester’s innercity suburbs.
Although the number of fatal attacks remains low, the list of teenagers stabbed to death in recent years makes for depressing reading; Abdul Hafidah in 2016, Joe O’Brien in 2019, Mohamoud Mohamed and Alexander John Soyoye last year and just last month Rhamero West in Old Trafford. Several of these victims were known personally to lads at Collyhurst and Moston boxing club.
George Killen, 18, went to school with John Soyoye, for example.
Asked about the number of stabbings in north Manchester, George said: “It does worry me – it’s my generation. It starts with stupid things, somebody who wants to be the main man, or postcodes.
“I know people from Moston and Blackley so it doesn’t make a difference to me.
“But people talk about M40 or M9. If you went out in these areas I think lots of people have got a knife - the way stabbings are increasing doesn’t surprise me, it’s become normal, the numbers are growing. “It shouldn’t be normal.” Many of the lads like George say the boxing gym is making a positive difference. Not only does it give teenage boys an outlet for pent-up aggression, but it is also perhaps one of the only places that they are able to discuss what’s going on in their lives openly and honestly. I’m 100 per cent against carrying knives – if you got out with a knife you’re a s***bag, you’re a coward.,” said George. “At this place we know what respect is. You walk through this door and the first thing you learn is discipline. If we didn’t have this gym in this area the crime would be even higher. I come in here and I’m knackered, I don’t want to go out. “
Brogan Cunningham, 20, is another promising young boxer who trains at the gym.
He also helps Tommy with his mentoring programme but admits he could easily have got sucked into a different way of life.
“A hundred per cent I could have gone the other way,” said Brogan. “I was never good at school.
“If you hear ‘I grew up in Moston’ you think rough but that doesn’t reflect you as a person. I knew people who grew up rough who are top, top people, who’ve got good jobs.
“It’s life choices. If you grew up with nothing you don’t have to rob; go and get a job.”
But Brogan and George don’t believe a large-scale, structured gang system exists in north Manchester.
Instead, they believe disputes have generally developed between smaller groups of teenagers who might be from different schools or different postcodes. That chimes with what police sources have told the M.E.N about some recent stabbings.
One particular feud is believed to have developed between two groups of boys because of robberies carried out on one another’s ‘turf’ and developed into knife attacks, the M.E.N understands.
“It’s little groups of kids who are in a clique” says Brogan. “You hear about postcodes all the time – if it’s in Cheetham Hill they say ‘8 gang’ because it’s M8, or M9 or M40.
“I think it’s silly if you’re arguing with someone over a postcode.
“But sometimes you will be in the wrong place at the wrong time. And they will go to someone else’s postcode to find them.”
Over in Blackley, John Farrell, the Labour councillor for Higher Blackley is among those worried about recent trends in youth crime after a flurry of incidents this year.
In April, matters came to a head when a group of schoolboys walking home from school were robbed by thugs armed with a gun and a machete on Plant Hill Road. A 14-year-old boy suffered a head injury after being pistolwhipped.
The incident sparked fury among local parents who organised a ‘noise protest’ along Victoria Avenue.
The sight of another police cordon in the area often sparks an impassioned discussion in a local Facebook group for Moston and Harpurhey.
Following the discovery of a gun dumped in Broadhurst Park this week, one member of the group, Gwen Tansey said: “I’m shocked at how unfazed I am by these events,” she wrote.
“The local authority and the police will not step up their response unless we get bothered.
“I’m not saying they are not, I believe they are swamped. On this part of Moston Lane there is a serious incident every week, if not more. Accompanied by the robberies, shop lifting , domestic problems, car crime, I hear it every day to the point I know I’m unmoved by it.
“My frustration isn’t with the police or everyone in Moston or on the Lane in general.”
“The select few make it horrible for shopkeepers, people walking alone, homeowners.. you get the gist,” Gwen added.
Just yards from where the machete robbery took place is the former Plant Hill police station, which is now boarded up having closed in 2012.
Coun Farrell says while the local neighbourhood policing team do good work, strategic decisions at a senior level have not helped north Manchester. “I think the neighbourhood team know very well what’s going on – but it doesn’t result in them getting the resource,” he said.
“Very often it’s people that are known. They keep on getting called to the same places.”
Coun Farrell says reporting crimes to GMP remains an issue, something recently identified in yet another critical inspectorate report.
He believes there is not enough joined-up thinking between police divisions and specialist units.
He references a racist attack on a 13-year-old boy in Plant Hill park in 2017 that made national headlines.
“The kids involved were wellknown to GMP,” said Coun Farrell.
“The neighbourhood policing team is split down Rochdale Road, so Blackley and Charlestown are in different teams.
“The kids were from the other side of the road, it’s only 10 or 15 minutes walk but it wasn’t picked up.”
Coun Farrell compares the lack of joined-up thinking between areas in policing with other provision to help tackle youth crime.
“The Youth Zone in Harpurhey is brilliant - but that’s the ‘hub’ for north Manchester,” he said.
“Kids from Blackley won’t go to Harpurhey.”
Coun Farrell believes a more comprehensive regeneration strategy is needed for north Manchester to address longstanding inequalities.
Coun Rabnawaz Akbar, executive member for neighbourhoods for Manchester city council said: “No one should be made to feel unsafe in their neighbourhood and as a council we’re committed to doing everything we can to create and maintain safe and prosperous communities.”
Inspector Helen Hallworth, of GMP’s City of Manchester North District, said: “As part of ongoing work, a Community Safety Advisory Group - made up of partners and support agencies - has been established in North Manchester, with the ultimate aim of improving community safety for those living and working in the area.
“Working with partners will help us support the vulnerable people within the community, identify those that pose a long-term risk and will inform how we police the area.”
It starts with stupid things; somebody who wants to be the main man or postcodes George Killen