‘I’m scared to bring children into this world’
A decade after Ben Kinsella’s brutal murder, his sister Brooke tells Joe Shute of her heartbreak that we are still dealing with knife crime
Brooke Kinsella has been here before. The year was 2008, “the darkest time” of her life, and Britain’s annus horribilis for knife crime.
Back then, in London alone, 23 teenagers were fatally stabbed among 42 nationally. Newspaper front pages declaring “Blade Britain” were not dissimilar to those that have appeared in recent weeks – as we experience another upsurge in violent street crime, with more than 50 murders so far this year in the capital. Then, as now, the families of the fallen marched in the streets to demand safer communities.
Brooke’s younger brother Ben was murdered in June 2008. The popular and bright 16-year-old was set upon and stabbed 11 times in five seconds by three teenagers, in an unprovoked attack after a night out celebrating the end of his GCSE exams.
Ben was on his way to sixth form college and hoped to become a graphic designer. He had no gang connections whatsoever and no prior knowledge of his killers, who were later jailed for life – with a minimum of 19 years in prison before they can be considered for parole.
At the time, 25-year-old Brooke was a well-known actress, having spent several years starring in Eastenders. In the immediate aftermath of her brother’s death, she and her family (parents George and Deborah, and siblings Christopher, Holly, Jade and Georgia) launched the Ben Kinsella Trust, which continues to work with thousands of youngsters across the capital.
Over the ensuing decade, she has become one of the country’s most prominent anti-knife crime campaigners, courted by three prime ministers and, in 2011, appointed
MBE for her work.
But, in recent times, the 35-year-old has deliberately stepped out of the limelight to focus on processing her grief and rebuilding her own life. She no longer acts and instead works as a talent agent. In December, she married her long-term partner Simon Boardley.
When we meet in an Islington café, just a few streets away from the home where she and Ben grew up, it is to give her first interview in two years. Such has been the number of young people stabbed – London has witnessed at least 35 knife deaths in 2018 so far, including eight teenagers – that Brooke feels she can no longer simply watch from the sidelines.
“I’m really scared right now. Petrified actually,” she says. “I’m at an age when I’m thinking of bringing children into the world, and I’m really not sure I want to because the worry and pain and fear of where we are right now is horrendous.”
With each bulletin bearing news of the latest killing, it is not the faces of the victims that she has found most upsetting, rather those of their loved ones. “It’s the mothers, sisters – those are the ones that break my heart,” she admits. “I’m scared for our young people. If Ben were alive today, I’m not sure I would let him out of the house. I’m scared for my nephews growing up.”
In 2010, Brooke was tasked by the then home secretary Theresa May with touring the country to compile a comprehensive report on knife crime. She delivered her findings in 2011: the need for more data sharing, better cohesion between agencies, breaking down barriers between police and young people, sustained investment and education. Many are the same solutions that have again been suggested in recent weeks.
The Government backed up her findings with £18million – which at the time Brooke admits she thought was a huge amount – but the money and enthusiasm soon dwindled.
“I feel like many families we were promised things by politicians that either didn’t materialise, or did but were snatched away very quickly,” she says. “It’s hard to keep going
– but what’s the alternative? You just have to hope. It’s got to the point now where enough of us are crying out [for them to] realise something has to be done.”
In spite of her obvious frustration, Brooke insists that she welcomes the new £40million serious violence strategy unveiled by Amber Rudd this week – particularly its focus on education. While she agrees with the Home Secretary’s assessment that the upsurge in violent crime is not simply the result of cuts to police numbers, she stresses that neighbourhoods are suffering from an obvious lack of officers on the beat.
“The police have a vital role and I do think we need more to make our communities safer,” she says. “But alongside law enforcement there absolutely has to be early prevention.”
Her 2011 findings also emphasised the importance of restorative justice, with criminals made aware of the impact of their crime on the victims’ families. But she admits to not being ready to confront Ben’s killers herself. “I still don’t feel I’m there,” she says. “I would only ever want to meet them to ask why, and I don’t
‘Politicians promised me things that never materialised’
think they would ever be able to give me an answer that offered any satisfaction.”
There are, however, pockets of the country where similar approaches to those suggested in Brooke’s Home Office report are making a major difference. She points to Scotland’s successful Violent Reduction Unit, set up in 2005 to tackle high levels of knife violence in Glasgow, and credited with bringing about a significant reduction through a public health approach; making it a priority of the NHS, schools, police and youth workers.
Closer to home, the Integrated Gang Team (IGT) in Islington has also managed to buck the national trend. The IGT – a partnership between the police, council, NHS, job centre, probation service and voluntary partnerships – was set up in 2016, with its sole focus being knife violence among young people. It was launched following the murders of three teenagers, including 18-year-old Stefan Appleton, who was stabbed in an Islington park, while children played nearby. To date, the IGT has worked with 129 young people identified as being “at risk” of becoming involved in, or already caught up in, gang-related criminality or violence. Over the past 12 months, Islington has witnessed an 11.3per cent reduction in knife crime victims aged under 25, compared to a London-wide increase of 14.6per cent.
Det Insp Will Lexton-jones, who heads the IGT, explains that it comprises 20 police officers, as well as social workers, a clinical psychologist and specialists with expertise in gangs, young women’s issues, and victim support. They are all based together and attend daily briefings and call-outs. As well as maintaining a police presence on the streets, Mr Lextonjones says that his officers will invite parents of at risk teenagers into the station for preventive discussions.
“I had officers at the start who were averse to working so closely with partners [social services, youth workers etc] but have become big champions,” he adds.
But, in spite of promising signs from the IGT in terms of young people, overall knife violence has continued to rise in the borough. Mr Lexton-jones – as with Will Linden, the acting director of the Violence Reduction Unit in Scotland – warns that addressing the root causes of knife crime is a long and complex road, and a fixation on short-term results is not helpful.
“We all know the answers to this,” he says. “But we are not persistently doing it because priorities change and it is complex, long term and expensive. You won’t get results in six months.”
Like Brooke, Mr Lexton-jones admits being frustrated that politicians seem unwilling to properly invest in long-term strategy across Britain – with one eye always on the next election. Crucially the IGT has been assured £500,000 funding a year through the local authority and police until 2020, a luxury few similar projects enjoy.
“It’s what I’ve come to expect from our political partners, they’ve got different drivers than we do,” he adds. “It’s an inevitable cycle of politics and economics. I expect to see it all again probably two or three times more before I retire.”
Brooke echoes his thoughts. She is justifiably proud of the educational work the Ben Kinsella Trust has done with around 11,000 children over the past decade. But this is tempered by the realisation that more sustained preventive action is required to stem the bloodshed and achieve significant long-lasting change.
“This needs to be recognised by politicians across the board, regardless of who is in power,” she says. “There is no short-term fix.”
A major issue, she believes, is the idea that knife crime is something that happens to other people. “I think we need acceptance as a society that this is on your doorstep,” she says. “People like to live in their bubble, where they feel safe. That is fine. Before I lost Ben, knife crime wasn’t on my radar. I would read stories and think, ‘gosh that is sad’ and then turn the page because it didn’t apply to me. And then it did.”
It might have been 10 years since her brother’s murder, but the grief continues to roll over Brooke in waves: at the moment she was appointed an MBE; on the birth of her nephews; through her father’s unexpected tears; via the empty chair at her wedding and the bridal bouquet her mother made for her, including a special locket as a reminder of Ben.
“Some days it’s just too much and I call them my Ben days,” she explains. “It’s the tiny details that are the saddest of all. You go through the original shock and pain. It’s horrendous. I wouldn’t wish it on my worst enemy. I wouldn’t even wish it on the people that took Ben.”
What has got the family through their darkest days, is the hope that they are helping to save young lives. That is what has made the current headlines and senseless killings so difficult to take.
“The only thing that has kept my family going has always been simply to stop this happening to somebody else,” she says. “We were never naive enough to think knife crime was going to stop. But I would give anything to say the world is in a better place. I can’t say that right now and it is heartbreaking.”
‘I would not wish this on my worst enemy’