'I felt unloved... but on the streets I belonged'

Dwayne Jack said he was "accepted" on the streets, but for "the wrong reasons"

A man who was in and out of prison for almost two decades has said breaking out of the cycle of crime was so difficult because of unresolved trauma and a need to feel like he belonged somewhere.

Dwayne Jack was just six years old when he started getting involved with crime gangs in and around the Britwell Estate in Slough, Berkshire.

It took 17 years, a machete attack and a 'lightbulb' moment to confront his trauma, but now Mr Jack, aged 39, helps vulnerable young people and their families break out of the cycle like he did.

"I feel like a new person," he said. "We're doing amazing stuff."

"At the age of 6 I was probably just wandering round getting up to no good, shoplifting," Mr Jack said.

"I was a menace to society."

By then, his father had left and in the next two years, he would witness domestic violence, drug deals in his home, and his mother being sent to prison.

He got more involved with crime and drugs, and eventually he was sleeping with weapons close by because of "the substance misuse".

One of the only places he felt safe was prison.

"Jail was my safe haven," he said.

"That's where I got healthy, all my needs were met... but then I'd [get out and] go back to the same environment."

Machete attack

Mr Jack said he was caught in a cycle, where he wanted to change but did not have the tools.

Crime gave him acceptance and belonging, "but for all the wrong reasons", he said.

A low point was when another man he was feuding with attacked him with a machete, and he was told he might never walk again - but even then, he was "still doing criminal activities" when he got out of hospital.

But then, things changed when he was 27 and in prison again.

He said he "prayed out to God" and underwent a "transition that happened within me that enabled me to make the right choices".

When his mother visited, he told her he forgave her, and gave her a hug.

Mr Jack now helps other vulnerable children and families

Years on, Mr Jack says his trauma was "the driving force" behind his criminal activities.

He works with charity Causeway to raise awareness of it, and the power behind tackling it.

"Until it's revealed, it can't be healed," he sad.

When he was able to heal his own trauma, it "changed my personality, changed me as an individual... and I just [became] a human being".

"That was my healing," he said. "I was able to fly."