Former gang member warns Kent children about drug gangs

Francis Osei-Appiah is calling for more early intervention to warn children about the risk of being groomed by drug dealers at an early age

Kent primary school children are being warned by an ex-gang member about the dangers posed by county lines drug dealers.

Francis Osei-Appiah said he had given talks to over 40,000 children over the last 12 years with some as young as 10.

He said: "Schools are taking early intervention very seriously."

Kent Police said children as young as 12 were being recruited by drugs gangs but it has halved the number of county lines in Kent since 2020.

Criminals are sending young people from areas including London to sell crack cocaine and heroin to users in the county.

Mr Osei-Appiah says he gives back to the community through his own lived experiences

Mr Osei-Appiah, who is chief executive of Kent-based charity Reform, Restore, Respect, said: "When we started in 2012 we were only giving assemblies in secondary schools, but overall, every year we now see more primary schools than secondaries.

"At this age the children are still learning. Year 6s are the best age group, they are like sponges and we need to get them early, not later in Year 8 or Year 9," he added.

The 42 year-old, who was once part of a notorious London gang and was jailed for nine years, said he believed his hard-hitting assemblies were appropriate to share with 10 and 11 year-olds.

"I think real life stories always make an impact. The schools ask the parents if they want the child to be opted out."

Mr Osei-Appiah said he had not heard of any parents not wanting their children to take part.

"I want the children to walk away and say to themselves 'I don't want to make the mistakes Francis made in his early life'," he added.

Giacomo Mazza, head teacher of Coxheath Primary School, which is one of the latest to host such an assembly, said: "The age of criminality is 10 and every kid across the country needs this message.

"Those lived experiences are the only way the children can understand a life of crime. They need to know about the potential dangers of county lines, not to frighten them, but to prepare them," he said.

Giacomo Mazza, says it is crucial to warn children from a young age about the risks they could face

One 10-year-old pupil at the school said: "I have learnt that my choices are going to have massive actions and the actions are going to have impacts on my career.

"I need to not talk to strangers I don't know, I need to not get in gangs and I don't need to be friends with mysterious men."

Another pupil said: "After this story you know how serious and how dangerous gangs are. Choices are everything and crime can have a big impact on your life."

In a survey of 1,500 boys aged 13 to 19 commissioned by British Transport Police, 19% said they or a friend had been offered work by a drug dealer and 15% had seen drugs being offered or sold on social media.

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