Jay Kirton wants to see prison reform

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A FORMER gang member has called for kids to be trained in martial arts to stop them being “scared” into carrying a knife.

Born in Highbury, Jay Kirton moved to the Elthorne estate aged seven, and said the days of playing football and skateboarding quickly morphed into been marked by fear and violence as he became a teenager.

Mr Kirton described how he would sometimes get into fights with older boys on the estate, but more often with teenagers from surrounding estates in Holloway and Archway.

He told the Tribune: “We used to meet people and that’s when you start fighting, for no reason. This was nothing to do with money.

“It’s territorial, but you don’t even know what you’re fighting over because no one’s making money at this point.

“No one’s thinking you’re selling on my patch, it’s nothing like you see on Top Boy. It was literally like you look like someone I should be frightened of.”

An international karate champion, Mr Kirton believes, however, that the knife crime epidemic could be helped by increased martial arts training to stop teenagers feeling the need to carry a knife to defend themselves.

He said: “The people carrying knives are the ones who can’t fight. You don’t carry a knife unless you’re scared. I know people that they’ve gone out, people pulled knives out on them. The next time they go out, they take a knife, then they get stopped and searched, and then they get arrested.”

Mr Kirton added: “But me, I know if someone comes up to me with a knife, then I’ll be able to take it off them, and I won’t have to hurt them. If people are not frightened of other people, and they don’t move in fear, and then they know, OK, I can protect myself.”

Since those early days, Mr Kirton has been on a transformational journey – breaking away from the gang “lifestyle” by going raving, running as the cannabis-legalisation candidate against Emily Thornberry in the 2015 general election, and finding his faith through the Hare Krishna movement.

Mr Kirton says that his generation has some responsibility for the escalation in violence, and believes he can use his new-found knowledge around herbal medicine and emotional regulation to help.

He said: “We, my age group and the boys, with YouTube and stuff like that, we took it to the next level. We kind of glamor­ised it, we glorified it.

“That just fortified the idea that this was what was cool. Being macho was like expressing your anger in toxic ways and getting drunk and fighting.

“We’re responsible to some degree. So it’s like we actually feel that responsibility, and we’re trying to work out what we can do.”

Mr Kirton is now advocating for prison reform where young men are taught how to manage their emotions.

“Prisons is the best place to start this, because they’re going to come out at some point,” he said.

“They’re paying big money for them to be in there. People like me should have the ability to go into prisons and run programmes, especially with the younger ones. We should be doing movement, breath – and work with plants. You know, teas, herbal teas, how to calm yourself down, learning all these different things.”