INTERVIEW
Alastair Levy
THE INVESTOR
|
15
I
t’s hard to imagine how you pick
yourself up and carry on with life
when a young member of your family
has been murdered. Brooke Kinsella,
whose brother Ben was stabbed to
death in June 2008, says the generosity and
support of Ben’s friends gave her and her
family the strength to set up a charity to raise
awareness of knife crime.
‘To be honest, when it first happened I
didn’t have the strength to do anything.All
I could think was, “I’m a big sister and I don’t
have a little brother anymore”,’ she says.
The campaign started because Ben’s
friends – 15- and 16-year-olds – organised a
march through the streets of Islington to say,
‘Why Ben? No to knives.’ It was a few days
after Ben’s murder and Brooke, an actress and
former cast member of
EastEnders
, went along
to offer her support.
‘At the end of it I was asked to stand up
and thank people. I remember saying:
“Please don’t make me do this, I haven’t got
the strength.” But I did and it was almost as if
it was Ben’s voice coming out.
‘People said: “Right, we will support you.
If you want to do something, we will support
you.’’ It was a turning point.’
Within days, the Kinsella family had set up
a registered charity – the Ben KinsellaTrust
– so that people
wanting to give money in memory of Ben and
to combat knife crime would know where to
channel their donations.
‘Ben had been concerned about youth
violence.After his death I was rummaging
through his bedroom trying to find new
memories because there weren’t going to
be any more. I found his English coursework
book and there was a letter addressed to
Gordon Brown expressing his worries about
youth violence and making our streets safer,
and tougher sentencing,’ says Brooke.
‘We thought, “He’s 16 and he’s worried
about this.” This is really what the grown-ups
should be trying to fix.’
Brooke and her father, George, started
going into schools and prisons to speak to
young people about Ben and the impact
his loss had on their family. But constantly
reliving the events was too painful and
Find out more
To watch a short promotional film of
the Ben Kinsella Exhibition, go to
and search for ‘Ben Kinsella’.
draining, so the family decided instead
to produce an exhibition to educate
young people about the consequences of
knife crime.
The exhibition spent its first six months
in Islington, near the home of Ben’s beloved
Arsenal, and has recently moved to Millwall
Football Club in South London.
It comprises a series of rooms.The first
is Ben’s room, including photos of him, his
artwork and interviews with friends about Ben
– which shows that he was a typical teenager
who liked football, girls, art and his Xbox, and
his aspirations to become a graphic designer.
A cinema room screens videos of Ben’s
family talking about him and what has
happened, from getting that initial call
from the police, to the impact his murder
has had five years on and how it destroys a
family.‘Watching my mum, dad and sisters
talking about what they’ve been through
is heartbreaking,’ says Brooke.‘It’s a very
powerful room that gets people thinking:
“This could happen to my family.”’
An education room is packed with
information about knife crime: the laws
relating to carrying a knife, what you should do
if someone is injured from a stabbing and the
consequences, not just for the victim’s family
and friends but for the perpetrator’s family.
Brooke went all over the UK to talk to people
for this part of the exhibition, interviewing girl
gang members, ex-gang members, boys who
were in prison for stabbing someone and the
sister of a boy who stabbed someone.
The penultimate room is a prison cell,
occupied by a‘prisoner’ who explains the
impact his crime has had on his life.‘Kids get
to go into the cell and listen to the prisoner,’
says Brooke.‘He’s very tough. He talks about
how his grandad died last year, but that he
couldn’t go to the funeral or say goodbye.
The message within all this is to choose your
friends wisely and make the right choices.
A moment of madness has taken Ben away
from us, but it’s also affected those three men
[convicted of his murder] and their families.’
Nearly 3,000 primary and secondary
school children ranging from 10 to 18 years
old have visited the exhibition so far, signing
a pledge that they will never carry a knife.
The campaign has also achieved something
that Ben specifically said he wanted: the
lengthening of the maximum prison sentence
for knife crime from 15 to 25 years.
For the past five years Brooke has been
involved with every aspect of running the
trust, such as raising money and organising
the exhibition. In recognition of her work
against knife crime she was made an MBE in
2011. But now she thinks it is time to focus
on her career, which is why the charity has
employed a manager.
A client of St. James’s Place Partner
John Klipp, Brooke is grateful for the support
she received from the St. James’s Place
Foundation, both in the form of a donation
to pay for schoolchildren to attend the
exhibition and in advice on establishing and
running the charity.
‘I didn’t have any knowledge about
business, funding, law or politics and
these are all the things that come into play
when you are running a charity,’ she says.
‘Because it was so high profile we were
dealing with the government, the Home
Office and the police.’
Nevertheless, it seems unlikely that she will
stop campaigning altogether. One 10-year-old
boy who visited the exhibition wrote:‘One
stabbed physically is a million mentally.’
Brooke says:‘When that comes from the
mind of a 10-year-old you think, “OK, we’re
getting somewhere.” But if I’m reading that
we’re still losing kids, then we’ve still got
work to do.’
Watchingmy mum,
dad and sisters talking
about what they’ve
been through is
heartbreaking
