'A drugs gang turned my son against me'

The peer support group meets every two weeks, so families can share their experiences and ask for advice

A charity says violent drug gangs are recruiting children as young as 11 at their schools.

Safe and Sound, based in Derby, runs a support group for families of youngsters groomed into working for county lines gangs.

It says families are being torn apart and living in fear.

A woman said she was forced to put her son into care, while another claimed her child received messages from the gang on his PlayStation.

Cherie, Marty and Tia are all members of the peer support group at Safe and Sound and have had their names changed so they can speak openly about how criminals turned their children against them.

Marty said her son's behaviour started to change after he made a new friend at school.

She added: "That friend would treat him to food, do favours for him, and he felt indebted, he felt accepted.

"He felt he had a job to do, he was quite high up, he had status."

Families fear their children's lives will be taken away when they are involved with drug gangs

Marty felt her son's behaviour "snowballed" rapidly after he started to store drugs and weapons in their home, which in turn led to it being raided repeatedly by police.

Marty was so worried about the safety of her other children that she had her son taken into care.

"It was heartbreaking," she said. "I felt like I'd betrayed him. I didn't recognise my son anymore.

"I'd had to make a choice. Ultimately I did it for his protection. It's something that I'll never get over as a parent."

'Very secretive'

Cherie said her grandson started getting into trouble when he was about 12 and she then discovered a set of weighing scales, which she took to the police.

"It started off with silly things like just stealing a hat from a shop, and then it ended up with a street robbery," she added.

Cherie said her son made a new group of friends and became very secretive.

She ended up reporting her own son to the police several times and eventually received a call to say he had been arrested.

"Part of me felt relieved because it's either he's going to kill somebody or somebody's going to kill him," Cherie said.

"My biggest fear is that I'm going to be identifying a body."

'Heavily groomed'

Tia said she became suspicious after her son started disappearing regularly in a taxi and she heard him use a PlayStation game to communicate in slang that she did not understand.

She added: "My son was this alien that was wondering in and out the house. I don't know him anymore.

"He's been so heavily groomed and manipulated that he thinks that's all he's good for."

Tia says her son was often out all night and sometimes went missing for days, then would come back home with expensive designer clothes.

She said: "I feel like I've lost him. You're lying there waiting for the police to come and tell you they have your son and he's been murdered."

Tracy Harrison said organised criminals were also coercing children into threatening other young people

Tracy Harrison, the CEO of Safe and Sound, says "younger and younger" children are being groomed into so-called county lines gangs.

The charity regularly supports 11, 12 and 13-year-olds who are packaging, selling and delivering drugs, which are ordered through a mobile "deal line".

She said: "The parents and siblings absolutely live in fear because the perpetrators will absolutely bully, control and threaten the young people and say 'if you don't do this, I will get your family, I know where you live'.

"It tears a family apart. Any child, anywhere, at any time, can be groomed."

Cherie said sessions with the charity were an opportunity to talk without feeling judged.

She added: "You don't feel ashamed, and you feel that there is light at the end of the tunnel."

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