“Drug wars” have been terrorising a Leeds suburb where knife crime is rife among children, according to residents who say it has been affecting their “mental health”.
Residents say they are faced with the harrowing reality of drug-related violence in Armley. The west Leeds neighbourhood was the residential area with the highest crime rates in Leeds in 2022, falling only behind the city centre.
The dire consequences ripple through families, instilling fear and concern among parents and residents who yearn for safety and security. West Yorkshire Police said it's "firmly committed" to do everything it can to support and reassure the community, with a number of "proactive initiatives" in place to reduce knife crime involving young people
Read more: Boy arrested after teenager is stabbed in Leeds' 'safest area'
Heart-wrenching accounts of horrific incidents bring the gravity of the situation to light. One witness vividly recalls a brutal stabbing outside the shops in Town Street, where blood poured from the victim's neck as they collapsed to the ground.
Another person recounts a chilling encounter with a 13-year-old boy brandishing a knife, narrowly missing yet another potential tragedy.
Jessica Casey, a 22-year-old mother and carer to her daughter who has autism, expressed her fears. She said: “There’s quite a lot of incidents with children using knives and stuff.
“It’s quite scary. I’ve got two children myself and I wouldn’t like to get a phonecall saying your child has been stabbed and possibly murdered.
“I stay up quite a lot worrying. With the amount of teenagers in this kind of stuff, you don’t know what’s going to happen. There’s quite a big problem with drugs as well, and kids getting in drug wars and stuff like that. It’s one of those things that worries most parents.”
Her brother-in-law Andrew Richardson, 46, who works as a fair-ground maintenance man, has been a witness to such atrocities. Providing a chilling first-hand insight, he describes the knife crime as a consequence of drug wars, primarily fuelled by cocaine, heroin, and other illegal substances.
He recalls the distressing scenes he has witnessed, saying: “The knife crime in this area is over cocaine, heroin and smack.
“Drug wars, basically. I’ve seen people stabbed and drop dead in front of me. When you see all the blood coming out, it does worry you. I suffer with my mental health.”
“It can play with your mental health quite a lot,” agrees Jessica.
'Worse and worse and worse'
Howard, a 75-year-old retired engineer, reflected on the decline of the neighbourhood over time. He said: “Armley has gotten worse and worse and worse. There were a couple of stabbings the other day – I’ve never seen it myself. It’s just a s***hole of a place. I’ve seen it degenerate.”
Phil, 60, described an alarming encounter he had with a teenager who was wielding a knife. He said: “As you get older, you get a little bit more…not scared but conscious of things when you see youths walking around.
“I’ve actually taken a knife off a kid who was 13. I slapped him across the face and told him to f***-off home or I would tell his dad.
“He was outside a block of flats and had a small paring knife in his hand and was acting big about it.”
Phil says he later saw the child’s dad in the pub who was mortified when he told him the news.
Inspector Phil Gill, who heads the Leeds West Neighbourhood Policing Team, acknowledges the community's concerns and emphasises the concerted effort to combat crime and antisocial behaviour.
He said: “We continue to work hard alongside our partner agencies to tackle the crime and antisocial behaviour issues that affect people the most in our communities. We have proactive initiatives ongoing to tackle serious violence, particularly knife crime involving young people, and the organised supply of drugs at street level.
“We also work through our Safer Schools Officers and youth organisations to educate young people about the dangers and risks of carrying knives and criminal exploitation through involvement in street gangs and the supply of drugs.
“We recognise that incidents of this nature cause understandable concern, and we remain firmly committed to doing everything we can to support and reassure our communities while we continue to work in partnership to keep people safe.”
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