A 17-year-old boy stands in Manchester's youth court, head bowed and looking sheepish.
His mum is stood next to him, a face full of fear.
He has admitted a number of offences including being caught by police in possession of a six-inch kitchen knife in a public place, namely Heaton Park.
Asked by the magistrates if there is any 'specific reason' he was carrying a knife the boy mumbles “not really", in reply.
The boy has no previous convictions and is sentenced to a six month Referral Order which requires him to meet with the Youth Justice Service to draw up a contract of rehabilitation.
His mum agrees to pay her son’s costs totalling £107 at a rate of £10 a week and the hearing is over in a matter of minutes.
Serious youth violence soars 200 per cent in Manchester
Outside court, the Manchester Evening News approached the boy and his mum to ask if he would elaborate any further on his offence.
Free from the gaze of the magistrates, the teenager opens up and tells a story which gets to the heart of why knife violence among young boys is soaring in Greater Manchester.
It is a story about the toxic mix of entrenched deprivation, self-perpetuating fear and a high-stakes gang culture inflamed by social media which is driving knife-carrying into many different corners of the region, from the classroom to the bus stop.
In 2019, Assistant Chief Constable of Greater Manchester Police Rob Potts warned that knife crime was no longer just "a London thing".
And while efforts to understand and combat the problem have undoubtedly been scaled up, such as with the launch of the GM-wide Violence Reduction Unit, a Manchester Evening News investigation lays bare the size of the task.
We have unearthed figures which reveal serious youth violence offences have risen by 200 per cent in the city of Manchester alone in just two years.
Most urban police force areas saw a reduction in knife offences in 2020-21 due to the coronavirus lockdowns, but in Greater Manchester they went up 4 per cent.
Homicides also increased in the the region by 16 per cent.
It is understood Greater Manchester Police believe this is in part due to their improvement in recording crimes since a series of damning inspection reports.
But a trawl of the Manchester Evening News archives gives just a small flavour of how these figures translate into individual incidents.
In the 12 months from January 2021-22, we have reported on at least one stabbing every week where either the victim or the alleged perpetrator was a teenager.
Eight of those incidents were fatal and resulted in police launching a murder investigation including the shocking killings of 15-year-old Reece Tansey in Bolton and 17-year-old Josiah Norman in Salford.
Teen stabbings have happened in all ten boroughs of Greater Manchester, from places as different as Ramsbottom and Hale, to Ashton-under-lyne and Reddish, to Swinton and Oldham.
And 2022 has started in similarly tragic fashion with the murder of Kennie Carter, the 16-year-old stabbed to death in Stretford last week.
Six boys aged between 14 and 17 have been arrested.
On Friday night a 16-year-old boy was knifed in chest in Next in the Arndale centre. His dad said he was a 'millimetre from death'.
This morning a boy of 17 was found stabbed to death in a park in Salford.
Young lives are being lost in horrendous circumstances leaving behind a trail of trauma - from friends and family to witnesses and emergency services.
If children are dying in the streets, surely we all have a duty to ask ourselves why?
'He was screaming at me saying he's going to stab me'
The boy at Manchester's youth court was from Whitefield in Bury and claimed he only started carrying a knife because he had himself been threatened by another boy after a petty argument outside school.
“Someone threw a rock, the rock hit off a wall and hit this kid in his face,” he said.
“[Another boy] got in an altercation with my mate.
“They started fighting. I’ve gone in to split it up - that’s when he pulled the knife out. I started running off.
“I couldn’t really see it [the knife] I just looked back and saw this silver thing in his hand. He was screaming and chasing me.
“He said when he sees me he’s going to stab me.
“I never carried a knife before.
“It’s my mum’s. I just went and picked it up, I just thought if I see this kid he’s going to try and stab me if I don’t have a knife to protect myself.”
When asked for her thoughts on this story, his mum said simply: “It’s very sad, I had no idea.”
The teen said he knew at least three friends who had been stabbed in the past year including one who had to be airlifted to hospital and was lucky to survive.
The boy’s mum confirmed the truth of this incident, adding: “I know the parent of the boy he’s talking about, thank god he survived.”
'They're both from the 8 but they don't like each other'
Postcode rivalries between teens, intensified by the ability the goad each other via social media, is fast-becoming recognised as one of the major issues around knife violence.
The boy went on to claim his friend was caught up in a feud between boys from the M8 area of Manchester which covers Cheetham Hill and Crumpsall.
“These lads thought he was from Cheetham Hill, even though he was from Whitefield", the teen said.
“But they thought [my mates] were all from the other side of Cheetham Hill that they don’t like.
“It’s Waterloo and Huxley [housing estates], they’re both from the 8 [postcode] but they don’t like one another."
The M.E.N understands there are currently at least two significant feuds linked to the M8 area that have led to serious violence in the area and beyond.
One 'beef' is between the rival estates in Cheetham Hill, Huxley and Waterloo, while another is between Waterloo and the neighbouring M7 postcode in Broughton, Salford, it is believed.
The situation is made more complex because some of the fighting involves so-called 'youngers' - boys in the early to mid-teens, and some involves 'olders' - men who could be in their 20s or 30s, but are more likely to be only just adults themselves aged 18 or 19.
The feud is also being played out through 'drill' rap videos on YouTube.
One shows Waterloo 'youngers' boasting of their dominance over 'the 8' area while their opponents have hit back in the comments underneath.
"These jokemen aren’t 8 block, Huxley runs the 8 and that’s straight facts, these water neeks [drug dealers] are 8 rejects," reads one comment.
"I don’t care if the ygs [youngers] have squashed the beef, for us olders it’s still on, f*** waterloo.”
'The system is lumbering'
The postcode gang wars stretch beyond Manchester.
In Oldham, many in the system have been worried about the rise in youth violence for several years.
The M.E.N. reported last March on a violent teenage feud playing out around Hollinwood tram stop, with kids as young as 13 armed with axes.
“In Oldham we’ve seen more than our fair share of young people carrying knives, young people carrying out attacks, and also what is pretty clearly postcode wars,” Oldham MP Jim McMahon told the mayor, deputy mayor and senior command in December.
"Some of which, by the way, is escalating within schools through Whatsapp-type groups and the rest of it that ultimately then finds itself on the street with the very real consequences that cases.”
One senior education figure in the borough echoes many of the patterns seen in Manchester, with lockdown further exacerbating the situation.
“The focus of attention has been on catch-up and getting people back into learning, which is important, but during the last two years we’ve seen an increase in other social issues, including young men in particular being involved in things they shouldn’t be,” they say.
“We do seem to have this pattern where it’s particularly localised and an awful lot of it is going on on social media, including hypersensitivities about small slights that have happened to them - trivial issues about pride and not being disrespected and then a violent tit-for-tat reaction to that.”
In Greater Manchester, youngsters frequently cross boundaries for college or school, moving around freely on the public transport network.
But the system is not, in the education leader's view, as joined up as it should be, particularly where gang feuds straddle more than one local authority area or police division.
“The system is lumbering. The problem is we just don’t have the structures to keep track of this.”
'There are no gangs, just a ton of groups'
This stories of teens at war in Cheetham Hill or Oldham exemplify how the nature of what might be thought of as 'gang violence' is changing.
During the 80s and 90s, Manchester gangs grew out of a desire to seek control of the lucrative trade in hard drugs - mainly heroin and cocaine.
The feuding between rivals such as the Gooch and Doddington clans was ferocious and a large majority of crimes could be traced back to a number of key individuals.
GMP said shootings plummeted 92 per cent in the city after the arrest and conviction of Colin Joyce and Lee Amos - leaders of the Gooch gang - in 2009, for example.
But the drug trade has transformed as more crime goes digital.
In 2019, researchers spoke to a wide cross section of those touched by knife crime including young offenders, youth workers and teachers to produce a report for the Mayor Andy Burnham's office.
There were some significant findings.
The rise of of smartphones and social media has challenged the stranglehold of traditional gangs over postcodes in Greater Manchester, they concluded.
Older figures no longer hold a monopoly over access to drugs and weapons - any teenager with an iPhone and a debit card can now order cannabis, a zombie knife, maybe even the parts to make a gun to their door.
This has led to what researchers describe as the emergence of a 'gig economy' within the drug market, where individuals are quickly able to set themselves up as the local dealer without fully realising the consequences.
"The picture painted by young people was one in which a handful of organised gangs had been superseded by a large number of much smaller groups - loose and fluid affiliations with individual dealer operating more like sole traders whose allegiances shift on a daily basis," the report says.
The vacuum results in "unpredictable and chaotic street power struggles".
One adult offender in Wigan told researchers: "Back in the day there used to be head lead guys.
"Now there are kids running wild and killing the top guy trying to take the top spot. Everyone is out for what they can take."
A younger offender in Wigan added: "There are no gangs, just a ton of groups."
And in Oldham, a secondary school pupil said: "On my estate there is three groups, it all depends on which street you are from... I would say there are around 10-15 in each group... There are like 300 gangs in the [the borough] fighting for control of their patches."
The report concludes that "it appears technology has resulted in the redistribution of street power where rankings are temporary, status fleeting and competition rife."
Clearly, this is not the experience of the majority of young people in Greater Manchester.
However, the report argues that "for too many young people, particularly those who are already vulnerable, social media can exacerbate an already difficult, and often traumatic, social environment."
'Three people got on a bus and stabbed him'
Last year, Manchester Council quietly published a landmark report about serious youth violence in the city.
Researchers from Manchester Metropolitan University were commissioned to monitor 200 children with 'open cases' in the justice system for 15 months between January 2020 and March 2021.
Around half had committed an offence of serious violence.
Youth Justice workers highlighted a number of key factors behind the trend.
"There’s a lot of the postcode rivalries," said one.
"The whole ‘Where are you from?’ is a massive factor in Manchester.… I do think that does influence the violence."
Another youth justice worker added: "Young people quite openly talk to me about feeling cautious or worrying about travelling to certain parts of the city."
And another said: "One of my young people was passing [through an area] on a bus.
"He knew he shouldn’t have been going through that route, so he was sat on the top deck with his hood on, [but] three people from that area got on the bus and stabbed him.
"They said ‘You’re in the wrong area. You shouldn’t be here’."
Another youth justice worker suggested that although some of these rivalries between areas have existed for a long time, social media is exacerbating the problem.
"I feel that a lot of the beef is happening because people are chatting on social media, because they can say what they want, and then when they see that person[face-to-face], then we’re seeing the violence," the worker said.
Technology now allows children to film fights on their phones and then share them widely through apps such as Snapchat or TikTok.
This can further humiliate the victim and heighten the desire for revenge, the report argues.
'If I have a fight with somebody, at least I'm tooled'
The more knife attacks occur, the more they perpetuate a cycle of fear.
Of the 200 children monitored in the report, 60 had been convicted of possessing a knife.
Youth Justice workers say while some do view weapons as a way of committing crime such as robberies, most are scared of being victims themselves.
"A recent case [of mine] was picked up [by the police] … with an axe in his bag … and a ten-inch knife as well," said one.
"What has come out of his case is [that] he doesn’t feel safe going from one place to another."
Many children have come to view carrying a knife as a necessity to defend themselves, even though statistics show they are far more likely to become a victim by arming themselves.
"It would appear that the carrying of a knife or other offensive weapon has become almost normalised among justice-involved children," the report adds.
"As noted by a number of the workers, carrying a knife has become a habit for many children."
One Youth Justice worker said: "They say ‘Everybody’s doing it, … so therefore I’m doing it. If I have a fight with somebody at least I’m tooled. At least I can defend myself.'."
Parental loss, drugs and alcohol, neglect
The stark reality is that kids involved in knife offences have experienced adverse childhood experiences themselves.
The report found more than 80pc had either lost a parent to separation or bereavement, while more than 60pc had experienced either neglect, substance abuse or domestic violence.
Youth Justice workers added that this was likely only 'the tip of the iceberg'.
"There’s so much buried down that they’re not going to talk to us about, that we don’t know about, that might have gone on hidden before services became involved," one said.
The effects of poverty also cannot be underestimated.
Manchester remains one of the most deprived local authorities in the country, with recent research suggesting childhood inequality has only worsened during the pandemic.
One Justice Worker said of an offender: "Mum has barely any money to support him and his reason [for committing crime] when I first interviewed him was ‘I don’t want to stress my mum out and ask for money. I just figured that… this was a way for me to earn money on my own’.
"Obviously it wasn’t right, but we need to think about the positions that these young people are in, the choices that they make."
Manchester - a threat shifting North?
Given all the multiple factors mentioned above, it would appear Greater Manchester Police and the other agencies they work with face an uphill battle.
Part of the challenge is that the geography of serious violence in Manchester is changing.
Most of the notorious gangs such as Gooch and Doddington are linked to the south of the city.
But according to a recent report given to Manchester Council by GMP, it is now North Manchester which faces the 'greatest threat' from Organised Crime Groups.
Of the 41 shootings in Manchester between 2020-21, for example, 26 were in the North district.
It is for this reason that GMP set up a new unit of its anti-gang operation Challenger in North Manchester last year.
In a recent interview with the M.E.N, Chief Supt Paul Savill, the new permanent borough commander for Manchester, acknowledged that tackling the Cheetham area is a particular challenge.
He said one of the 'underlying drivers' of youth violence is 'urban street gangs'.
"You can't really call them Organised Crime Groups because they don't really have that collective intent to make money through crime," he said.
"We have in Cheetham, elements of groups carrying knives... youths involved in robbery offences against people of a similar age group, we have aspects of that and we've got [anti-robbery unit] Operation Valiant looking at it.
"Together with people that are holding knives because they're dealing at a low level and they don't want to be taxed by a rival drug dealer.
"You've got a sense of a number of people that have a motivation to carry knives."
The M.E.N has also reported on a crackdown by police and other agencies on 'Counterfeit Street' - the stretch of Bury New Road through Strangeways that has long been synonymous with shops selling fake designer gear.
More recently, the area has also become known as the place to buy fake or black market prescription drugs.
Chief Supt Savill admitted there is "...a definite link between some of those premises and the street dealers."
He expressed concern that young people in the area - particularly those from deprived backgrounds - may be getting exploited.
"Some of it will be driven by - and this is the reality of the deprivation - some will say that they're actually doing it to feed a family," said Chief Supt Savill.
"That's how they're getting involved.
"There's a risk some are being exploited, and there's a risk that some have seen that as their career path because the opportunities available to them."
'Two days of police is not going to work'
The feud between Waterloo and Huxley in Cheetham Hill is just one of many petty disputes that can easily boil over into serious violence.
Over Christmas, GMP imposed a Section 60 order on the area around Strangeways which gave officers enhanced stop-and-search powers.
Superintendent Helen Critchley said this was in response to 'incidents of serious violence'.
Naeem Hassan and Shaukat Ali, Labour councillors for the Cheetham Hill ward, said he was involved in asking police to take action.
He says the community has been fighting to tackle drug-dealing and violence for years.
“It’s drugs gangs fighting with each other, sometimes innocent people, children, are caught up in it," he said.
“I know one boy who was stabbed, he was innocent, he was a volunteer.
“They’re all linked to Bury New Road and drugs, it’s been going on for a long time.
"They’ve done so many operations but it’s getting worse and worse.
“Recently there was a video of fighting on Bury New Road that went viral, then our residents are worried to go there, they don’t know what’s around the corner.
“These gangs are paying children £20 a day to sell drugs in the area.
“The parents are worried - when they go to school or college they know there’s children carrying knives.
“Some just carry for their own protection - they’re not criminals, but because they’ve lost their mobile phone or some money before, they carry it when they’re coming home… especially now it’s dark."
“Poverty is definitely a part of it, the parents don't know where the money is coming from.
“I’ve been told to be careful speaking against the gangs, that it could be dangerous for me and my family.”
Hope in Moss Side
While so much of this sounds bleak - there is some hope.
Greater Manchester's record of success tackling organised crime in south Manchester and Salford may offer a template for breaking the cycle of violence.
Moss Side, especially, has taken huge strides since the neighbourhood was a byword for gang violence in the 90s and mid 2000s.
Both senior GMP officers and community leaders acknowledge progress was made by accepting that simply locking up gang members was only part of the answer.
Groundbreaking work was carried out with schools and youth clubs to keep youngsters away from getting into trouble in the first place.
Last year, a new Community Interest Company called 84Youth was set up by long-time youth worker Akemia Minnot in Moss Side.
The ethos is that the community fully buys into the process of providing solutions to serious violence and helps provide them with back from the authorities.
84Youth is one of several pilots being backed with £500,000 of funding by the Mayor's office through the Violence Reduction Unit.
As a trusted figure in MossSide, Akemia was able to get local youths, residents, victims of crime, families of those in prison for serious violent offences and anti-gang police officers together for a launch party last summer.
"The PTSD [in Moss Side] is perpetual - we understand it we still live it," said Akemia.
"There was nothing in place to resolve the trauma people have experienced [through serious violence].
"Initially you might get something from social services but then it drops off.
"There's new levels of devastation but nothing get addressed.
"We've developed training for professionals and community organisations so they have an awareness.
"We're now delivering it all across boroughs across Greater Manchester.
"We've seen so many times that young people experience trauma... and there's nothing in place to support that young person.
"There's a lack of hope.
"Somebody profits from that and it's not the truth.
"I would love businesses to come here and see for themselves the young people and how talented they are."
Worsening inequality in the North
According to the Indices of Deprivation report in 2019, Manchester was the sixth most deprived authority in England with almost half of the city in the most hard-up 10 per cent.
Researchers are increasingly warning that the pandemic has only worsened inequalities between children in the north and the rest of the country.
A recent report urging the Government to deliver on levelling-up offered a string of statistics to illustrate the problem.
Children in the North are; more likely to be obese than elsewhere in England, more likely to be living in poverty, more likely to die under the age of one, missed more schooling than their peers in other parts of the country during lockdowns and are significantly more likely to be in care.
Authorities in Greater Manchester are acutely aware of this deepening inequality and how it plays into crises such as knife crime, among others.
Their challenge is to try and address it. And there isn't a moment to waste.
What Andy Burnham says:
Mayor of Greater Manchester, Andy Burnham, said: “I offer my deepest condolences to the family and friends of Kennie Carter and all those whose lives have been affected by knife crime.
"I want to reassure the public that we are working hard in Greater Manchester to tackle serious violence, but recent tragic events show that there is much work still to do.
"In 2019, a dedicated Violence Reduction Unit (VRU) was formed in Greater Manchester to address the underlying causes of violence, and to work within communities to prevent it. The VRU comprises experts from across Greater Manchester Police, the NHS, education services, Greater Manchester Probation Service, victims services and local authorities.
"It works closely with schools and colleges to teach young people about the dangers and consequences of carrying a weapon, how to use social media safely and the importance of social empathy, amongst other things.
"Our ‘I Am Greater’ campaign, launched in 2021, focuses on the lives and experiences of young people and is working to boost personal ambition and encourage people to say ‘violence isn’t me… I am greater.’
"We are committed not only to strong enforcement to address violent crime, but also to trying to prevent it happening. We want to ensure Greater Manchester becomes safer and more welcoming for everyone living and working here, not least our young people.”
What Greater Manchester Police say:
Assistant Chief Constable Scott Green said: "We recognise and share the public's concerns around knife crime, particularly when involving young people. Simply - one incident of knife crime is one too many.
"It's important to remember that the overwhelming majority of young people in Greater Manchester do not - and have no intention of - ever carrying a knife.
"The causes of why someone would choose to do so are complex.
"To understand and tackle the issue we have worked hard alongside GMCA and partner agencies within Greater Manchester's Violence Reduction Unit (VRU) to not only better police, but better prevent young people carrying knives.
"School engagement officers, increased policing of geographical areas linked to knife crime such as Operation Perseus in Piccadilly Gardens, proactive policing of tram and bus networks by our Transport Unit and schemes such as Operation Concept - whereby knives for sale online are intercepted and prevented from reaching our streets - are other successful methods of policing and preventing knife crime in Greater Manchester.
"It's important to differentiate the carrying and use of knives among rival Urban Street Gangs from what we tend to see among young people.
"The latter is more often borne from a misplaced fear for one's personal safety - often involving a personal dispute that can be exacerbated by social media.
"This is why alongside the VRU we work in schools and have dedicated social media campaigns and websites offering support and advice - not only for young people but also parents - around issues including what is often termed 'toxic masculinity'.
"In terms of Organised Criminal Gangs (OCGs) GMP has several specific operations to counter this type of criminality, including Operation Haemus in North Manchester, which through a balance of prevention and enforcement has resulted in a significant reduction in firearms discharges since last year.
"Long term, the VRUs work around early intervention is another essential part of tackling gangs - by discouraging and preventing young people being drawn into gangs and criminality in the first place.
"Unfortunately, there is no single remedy for youth knife crime.
"The solution will involve the police working alongside partners and the wider community. We will continue to police those areas we know have issues and target those responsible for violence. And we'd ask people to keep an eye out for those around you.
"If you know someone is carrying a knife, then tell us. If you know someone is in a dispute and it's getting out of hand, then tell us. With the public's help we will drive down knife crime in Greater Manchester."
What Manchester Council say:
Councillor Garry Bridges, Executive Member for Children and Schools, Manchester City Council, said: "Every incident of serious youth violence is a tragedy and our thoughts go out to the families and friends of those who see their loved ones' lives tragically lost.
"Safeguarding children and young people in the city is our highest priority and we're determined to do all we can working with partners to keep young people safe.
"Manchester isn't alone however in having to deal with this issue. The escalation nationally and locally in youth violence and knife crime is a serious concern.
"The work involved in tackling it is complex and not easy which is why we have dedicated teams across the city working hard to support young people in the face of rising challenge. Our Youth Justice service, Complex Safeguarding service, and Early Help teams work together directly with children and young people and alongside schools to help keep children safe.
"The city is also one of the DFE's ten SAFE (Support, Attend, Fulfil, Exceed) taskforce areas, with a focus in Manchester - led by schools - on supporting vulnerable young people, keeping them in education, reducing the likelihood of them being permanently excluded from school, and helping make sure children and young people don't get involved in youth violence or become victims.
"Trying to tackle the issue of youth violence does however also require an understanding of some of the factors that contribute to it, which is why we commissioned MMU to undertake research for us on this last year.
"The evidence they presented shows that experiences of substance misuse, addiction, or domestic violence within the family, can impact on children and young people and increase their likelihood of becoming involved in serious violence. We’d already committed to taking a public health approach to serious violence and rolling out trauma informed practice across our workforce, and the research reinforces the importance of this and seeing serious youth violence through the lens of Adverse Childhood Experiences.
"We're currently developing a serious violence strategy for the city to build on all this work and make sure it's fully joined up and providing the right support at the right time and in the right place to prevent episodes of youth violence occurring.
"Tackling serious youth violence is not a simple task and requires complex and long-term interventions with individual young people, their families and their communities.
"This work is being done in the city, but it's a long-haul commitment and not a quick fix - and a decade of cuts right across the public sector, from councils, the police, health, and youth services, makes the job even more challenging."
What SnapChat says:
A spokesperson for SnapChat said: “Youth violence devastates families and communities and we have zero tolerance for it on Snapchat.
"Unlike traditional social media platforms, we don’t have open, unmoderated news feeds, which helps prevent content going viral.
"However, if we identify violent content being shared in messages or Stories we will delete it immediately and the account may be removed.”
