From the age of eight until 18, Rhys was heavily involved in the drug and knife culture, being exploited by county lines drugs gangs and seeing his friend become a victim of knife crime.
Now, he has turned his life around and in March 2021 become a youth mentor for Escapeline – a charity in the southwest devoted to preventing child exploitation.
Using his lived experiences, Rhys, 27, travels around schools in Wiltshire and other counties mentoring young people, holding group sessions and assemblies as well as one-to-one sessions, educating them on the dangers of knife crime and helping them to turn their lives around.
Speaking on Monday in Devizes at the launch of Sceptre, a national knife crime initiative, he said: “I’ve seen the worst of how knife crime can end up.
“I’ve carried a knife and nothing happened, my friend carried one for a while and nothing happened and then he was fatally stabbed.
“It is an incredibly fine line between innocently carrying one because you want to seem cool to your friends, and then the opportunity of using it and spending the rest of your life in prison.
“By carrying a knife, you are putting yourself at risk where you could be harmed, or you could harm someone else.”
Rhys says that for young people, education around knife crime is key.
In his sessions, he adopts a relaxed approach, having an open conversation and speaking about his own experiences and his life, making the sessions about him so the young people go away with more questions than they came in with.
Then he says it is down to the young person whether they are going to listen.
He continues: “I always say to my lads there’s no point coming into this room to have this conversation if they’re not going to learn.
“You have to listen, engage and contribute.
“If they’re doing that then you know at some point, maybe not today, maybe not next month, but at some point they’re going to use that education.”
And how has becoming a youth mentor changed Rhys’ life?
He continues: “When I started the job, I was still that cocky, egotistical male. I still thought the world owed me everything.
“But seeing that it wasn’t just me that county lines and knife crime affected, it also affected everyone else. It showed me that the world doesn’t owe me something, I owe the world something.
“Being a youth mentor means I relive trauma on a day-to-day basis, but if it’s saved one person then it means what I went through wasn’t for nothing.
“Knowing I’ve sorted my life out and someone has bettered themselves through my mistakes is the best feeling anyone could give you.”
Escapeline is commissioned by the Office of the Police and Crime Commissioner as part of the diversionary services made available through the Serious Violence Duty Fund.
For more information about the charity please visit www.escapeline.org.uk.
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