Northamptonshire mum in plea for help over drug gangs

"Sandra" said her son became involved with drugs gangs because he was vulnerable

A mother whose vulnerable son was stabbed after becoming involved with a drugs gang said more needed to be done to combat drug culture.

Her son, who she said had ADHD and Asperger's syndrome, became involved several years ago when he was in his early 20s.

Now free from the Northamptonshire gang, she said he still lived in fear.

Police said they were "using the full extent of the law at our disposal" in the fight against exploitation.

Sandra (not her real name), said her son's health conditions made him "very impulsive - he feels like everybody's his friend - he has to impress his friends".

It would be "very easy" to take advantage of him, his mother admitted.

He sold and carried drugs, and stashed them at the family home, she said.

It all came to a head in an argument - which she thought was about drug money - where her son was stabbed multiple times and had to be airlifted to hospital.

She said no-one was convicted of the attack and her son would not testify.

The decision not to talk to police was "100% street code".

Det Supt Lee McBride, head of serious and organised crime at Northamptonshire Police, said: "We have seen growing... child criminal exploitation - the use of children for drugs and that's a key focus."

But drugs gangs did not care about age or sex, he said. A person's vulnerability was a key factor.

"We're using the full extent of the law that we've got at our disposal," he said.

Former Children's Commissioner for England, Anne Longfield, said criminals used "brutal" methods to entice people to help them

Anne Longfield, the former Children's Commissioner for England, is chair of the forthcoming Commission on Young Lives.

She said that would aim to "prevent marginalised teens from falling into crisis and improve the life chances of those vulnerable young people at risk of getting into trouble with the law".

She said methods used to "entice and trap vulnerable and marginalised young people into criminality are increasingly sophisticated and brutal".

A few years on from her son's attack, his mother Sandra said he was now in a "safer place" and finally realised "these people were not his friends".

However, her son was now "a loner", she said, and was afraid to return home.