A friend of a man stabbed to death outside a Chelmsley Wood shopping parade is launching a new campaign to tackle knife crime. Lance Gregory was killed by Carlton Pollock with a knife he carried for his own protection on Remembrance Day last year. The 25-year-old was convicted of manslaughter and jailed for ten years at Birmingham Crown Court. Now Lances pal Natacha McArdle is planning to mark the first anniversary of the 24 year-old’s death with a Unity in the Community workshop. The campaign will be held from 1.30pm to 2.30pm next Saturday 16th November at Chelmsley Wood Baptist Church – next to the scene where Lance was killed. Lance’s mum Crystal and his cousin will attend to give a talk about the devastating affect knife crime has. Police officers, the youth offending team and self-defence instructors will also be there to educate people about knives and “break the mentality of carrying a weapon as a form of self-defence”. Mum-of-four Natacha, aged 29, said: “I grew up with Lance. No one I knew carried a weapon when we were younger, knife crime, to us, happened in Birmingham areas that we might be a bit intimidated of like Lozells or Aston. Now it’s not just fisticuffs or a little fight in the park that was arranged beforehand. When you’re carrying a knife, things can get out of hand. Two seconds of madness can have lifelong effects, for the victim and the person with the knife. I know a lot of Lance’s friends and they are still affected every day. Walking past Craig Croft every day, and seeing the flowers people put there, is a constant reminder of what happened. We’re trying to make the area safer for children. If it’s a success we hope to hold a monthly workshop in different areas around the Midlands. The thing with knife crime, is that it has a lot of momentum after a stabbing has happened. But a couple of weeks after, when the media attention has died down, it all gets brushed underneath the carpet. As a mother, it’s definitely a major concern. I hear people say they want to move away to bring their children up in a safer environment. But this is a nationwide problem. Why not stay and try and combat it?” Lance was knifed to death outside the shopping centre on Craig Croft on 11th November last year. The court heard that he had gone to the shops to meet a friend to discuss a row that had broken out at a party. But Carlton Pollock turned up instead and stabbed Lance in a “moment of anger”. Jailing him, Judge William Davis QC said he accepted Pollock’s “deep shame and remorse” for killing his close friend. But the judge told him: “I am satisfied that, immediately before you used the knife, you deliberately took it out in a moment of anger and thrust it forward. The serious thing is that you were carrying a knife and went somewhere where violence was at least possible. You knew Mr Gregory was waiting to have a fight with somebody. You habitually carried a knife, as you told the jury, for your own protection. That is the reason why this is a case of significant seriousness.”
Posted on: Sun, 10 Nov 2013 12:15:56 +0000
Trending Topics
Recently Viewed Topics
© 2015