The 41-year-old was involved in gang violence from a young age, from the mid-1990s to 2016, and was jailed several times, including for intimidation, violence and in 2003 he was jailed for his role in the manufacture of an illegal weapon. factory. In 2016, he was sentenced to eight years in prison for conspiracy to extort money, control prostitution and possession of cocaine and a container of CS gas found in his home at the time of his arrest. It was while sitting in his cell for these crimes in 2017 that his criminal lifestyle hit the house. “I was sitting in my cell and a program covering the murder of 11-year-old Reese Jones was televised, Little Boy Blue,” he said. READ MORE: Community devastated in shock after a 14-year-old boy was killed and his mother seriously injured in a “brutal” double-edged sword “It simply came to our notice then. I felt partly responsible as I had put hundreds of guns in the streets. I immediately wrote to the charity set up by his parents. “I had a passion from that point on to change myself as an individual and use my know-how to help others and reduce the number of children involved in crimes with knives, firearms, county, youth violence and anti-social behavior”. Since his release from prison, Sicarius, who now lives in Middleton, has worked with charities across the UK and has been in contact with many services to form his own team, OCG Solutions. Sicarius recruited young men into gangs for many years (Image: Manchester Evening News) This included joining groups of young people to see how they work and trying out their own methods on how to keep children away from violence. Sicarius is very honest about his past life in our conversation, openly discussing how he was treated by Al Qaeda in prison and how he would use the same methods used against him to recruit children across the northwest to his gangs. “I was good at it, recruiting kids into gangs, it was a good skill for me,” he says. “We started the right business, it was very sophisticated. “We flooded the streets with weapons and drugs, I was very good at it. I remember the first time I shot someone in the leg in Liverpool, with myself, no one really wants to kill anyone else, but it happens when you are so deep in this world. “And now the children are carrying knives, they are afraid others will do it, so do it [carry knives] themselves. “But they are not going to kill each other, it’s the last thing they want to do, but when the kids are arrogant it can happen.” Sicarius decided to change after knocking on his door how the weapons he put on the streets may have been used in violent crimes (Image: Manchester Evening News) Sicarius is determined to use what he believes to be unorthodox methods to keep children away from crime. He says it’s very different from how psychologists would traditionally try to help children, but he is sure it will be a success, and he says the people he has spoken to in the police are interested in seeing if it works. “I want to use the same methods I used to put children in gangs to keep them out. You have to be real with them and speak their language, if you try to be smart with them, they will not listen to you and will just think that you are ad *** h ***. Somehow manipulate them to keep them away from violence instead of getting into it. “I went to a youth club where there were some really violent kids and I became a monster again to scare them. It made me realize that I could still be like this monster I was, but use it to scare children from violence. I’m gone and they do not want to do anything with me, but in the end I have them on my side. Sicarius wants to teach children how to use bleeding kits, which could save lives after a violent accident (Image: Manchester Evening News) “It is a matter of relationship with them. If they see a horrible b

  • like me and tell them what I went through, it means a lot more than talking to a regular youth worker. But I can tell them that you can either spend your life living in a cell or change and do something good. “I hope to have some videos of horrible criminals from prison talking about their experiences. They will not necessarily say “stay away from gangs”, but it will show that you end up there if you continue the way you are, by force and in gangs. “I want children to talk to the parents of victims of gang violence to see that this is the result. Whether you end up in a cell or on the ground, you almost have to scare them.” Sicarius is currently raising money for trucks in order to set up teams for activity days and build relationships with them. His goal is to work with parents to show the progress of the way in which the children involved change over time with him. Education is also the key to his ideas and he is proud to show me a bleeding kit he has received from a collaborating charity that wants to teach children how to use it. It’s too early for Sicarius’s ideas, and there is still a lot to understand before group sessions begin. “I put everything into it, I just know it will work and there are a lot of people who are interested to see if it does, because it’s so different from anything that has been tried in the past,” he added. “Too many young people have lost their lives to violence, and it has gotten a lot worse lately, something different has to be done to stop it, and I can do that.” For more of the day’s top stories, click here. Read more related articles Read more related articles