Anita Brown’s eyes fill with tears of pain.
Like every mother, Anita Brown’s memories of her children are precious but there’s one recollection which makes her eyes fill with tears of pain. In horrific vividness, Anita relives the moment she saw her 17-year-old son Gavin dead in hospital, stabbed in the neck in a children’s playground.
The day War on Knives goes on air is the three year anniversary of her son’s attack and her loss is as raw today as it was when she had to identify Gavin at the hospital morgue. She says, “They took me into the room and he was just lying there with a little smile on his face, like he was pretending to sleep. I touched his arm, leg then his face, then went to stroke his face his head moved and I saw a cut on his neck. I thought that couldn’t be my child there lifeless…”
Her words trail off. A post mortem revealed he had suffered a fatal injury to the neck which had severed both his carotid artery and jugular vein. Anita’s experiences are becoming all too common. Already this year, the families of 27 teenagers in London alone will have had to identify their loved ones.
In War on Knives, Anita’s message to parents is as simple as it is stark: “If you think your children are out there with a knife or gun, please report them to the police. Please. We’re trying to make this a better world.”
What’s your message for Anita? Get in touch with us at waronknives@sky.com
