Stab victim Ben's appeal to Brown

1:56pm Saturday 5th July 2008

Teenage stab victim Ben Kinsella made an appeal to Gordon Brown to stamp out knife crime, it has been reported.

According to The Sun, the 16-year-old, who was stabbed to death last weekend, wrote a letter to the Prime Minister as part of his English GCSE coursework, suggesting parenting classes, curfews and youth clubs as possible solutions.

Ben reportedly accused the Government of standing by as teenagers were killed on the streets, and said violence was becoming "part of our culture".

He wrote: "Problems like this will continue to grow unless change starts to happen. Society needs to see a difference before it's too late."

Ben, the brother of former EastEnders actress Brooke Kinsella, was stabbed repeatedly in York Way, Islington, north London, at about 2am last Sunday. Three youths have been charged with his murder.

Ben began the letter with the words: "Youth violence hits deadly peak. When will it stop?"

He set out figures to highlight the extent of the problem and said it was "heartbreaking" that so many young people were fighting.

Ben suggested a key factor was the lack of respect and trust between parents and children, which could lead to youths staying out on the streets late into the night and taking part in violent behaviour.

"Parents need to consider bringing their children to parenting classes to build a relationship or else lose them for good," he reportedly wrote.

Ben cited the example of New York becoming safer under strong leadership from mayors and put forward ideas to solve the problem in the UK such as building youth clubs so teens were "not sitting around looking for fights with innocent bystanders" and introducing a 10pm curfew for under-18s.

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