Former excluded pupil makes film warning of crime

Luke Cato said the Lawrence film hopefully lets young people "know that they're in control of their decisions"

A man who has gone from permanent exclusion at school to helping youngsters to avoid the same fate and worse says he wants to "inspire".

Luke Cato, 37, from Handsworth, Birmingham, has a company that makes short educational films aimed at young people.

His film Lawrence follows the story of a college student - "a mini-version of me" - who wants to be a musician, although he finds himself tempted by crime instead.

Mr Cato himself was arrested several times as a teenager, but went on to university.

The executive producer, who was out of school aged about 13, was "a bit of a rebel" there.

Mr Cato, who is dyslexic, said academic work was not his strength.

"[I] know that I would get removed from class and put into sport classes and stuff like that and then that's kind of where you don't want to be.

"You're with other people that kind of had their reasons why they're there."

'Believed in me'

Later, he went to a "bridge centre" for a few hours a day to help keep him in some form of education.

However, one school believed in "me as a person", he said, and he finished his studies.

That institution gave him a job later in life: Mr Cato went into teaching and his "journey with behaviour management started".

Walsall College students have looked at the drama on their mobiles

In the film produced by Mr Cato's company Real Direction, viewers make choices for the lead character.

Walsall College students have used the interactive inner-city drama on their mobiles.

Users have to make the right choices to steer Lawrence from criminality.

Mr Cato, who has been helped by people working with major production companies, said Lawrence "wants to be a musician, how does he get there?... That's what the whole game's about".

He stated: "(It) touches on knife crime, touches on exploitation, touches on the whole gang culture.

"You get into this immersive experience of getting to play it out before you actually can get into a situation (in life) like that."

Mr Cato said some experiences Lawrence had gone through were "from things I've witnessed myself, experienced myself or is happening within my community".

He added: "I wanna inspire people and I've just got this burning desire to inspire."