A proactive public forum set up by The Northern Echo could be used as a blueprint for fighting knife crime across the country, the Shadow Home Secretary has said.

Yvette Cooper witnessed first-hand the open discussions between mothers of murder victims, education specialists and criminal justice professionals at the North East Knife Crime Taskforce on Wednesday.

The body was created to provide ‘joined-up thinking’ across the region after a spate of shocking teenage deaths from fatal stabbings.

Ms Cooper said Labour had developed policies to deal with youth violence as a direct result of meetings set up as part of the newspaper’s ongoing campaign.

The taskforce holds regular meetings to give groups and organisations the chance to meet face-to-face enabling them to share ideas and information to tackle the problem.

The Northern Echo: The North East Knife Crime Taskforce met at Durham University on Wednesday The North East Knife Crime Taskforce met at Durham University on Wednesday (Image: North News)Members include victims’ families, sports clubs, schools, police, crime commissioners, magistrates and youth justice workers and Ms Cooper said she would now like to see the taskforce model used in other parts of the country as well as for the country as a whole.

She said: “I think it is really powerful to get a coalition of people together and what we want to do now is create a coalition at a national level to bring together some of the families who know how devastating knife crime can be with different organisations who can do something about it.

“We want to see in every local area proper youth prevention partnerships that can bring together organisations that can prevent young people getting drawn into carrying knives or into violence in the first place so we can give our kids their future back.”

The Northern Echo’s campaign was launched after the sentence of ten boys who were aged 14 to 17 when they savagely attacked and fatally stabbed 18-year-old Jack Woodley from Newton Aycliffe.

Shortly afterwards, in October 2022, the region was rocked by the death of 14-year-old Tomasz Oleszak from Gateshead, and Gordon Gault, also 14, a month later in Newcastle.

The Northern Echo: Clockwise from top left: Connor Brown, Chris Cave, Tomasz Oleszak and Jack Woodley Clockwise from top left: Connor Brown, Chris Cave, Tomasz Oleszak and Jack Woodley (Image: Contributor)The aim of the campaign is to address the root causes of knife crime by educating young people of the dangers and facilitating the provision alternative activities.

Newcastle United Foundation and Billingham Boxing Club attended the taskforce meeting for the first time and have both pledged their backing for the ongoing campaign.

Pauline Bartley said St John Ambulance has already teamed up with the Connor Brown Trust to co-deliver life-saving messages to students in schools and colleges after meeting through the taskforce.

The Northern Echo: Adrian Worth from Billingham Boxing Club Adrian Worth from Billingham Boxing Club (Image: Sarah Caldecott)Northern Echo editor Gavin Foster said: “When we started this taskforce, we did so in the hope that bringing collective voices together would could make a real difference.

“It started with a handful of voices and has now developed into a force for change with police forces, politicians, crime reduction units, emergency services, schools, agencies, youth groups and most importantly those affected the most whose voices are the real driving force - the families of victims of knife crime.

“The collaboration has seen information sharing, partnerships created and combined efforts to tackle this scourge.

“It is working, but we can always do more. If we could emulate this collaborative approach across the country, who knows what we could achieve.”

During the three-hour meeting at Durham University Ms Cooper heard moving accounts from mums who lost their children to knife crime and are now campaigning to make the streets safer for other young people.

The Northern Echo: Tanya Brown Tanya Brown (Image: Sarah Caldecott)

The Northern Echo: Alison MadginAlison Madgin (Image: Sarah Caldecott)

The Northern Echo: Theresa Cave Theresa Cave (Image: Sarah Caldecott)Tanya Brown’s son Connor, from Sunderland, died aged 18 in 2019, and Theresa Cave, from Redcar, who lost her son Chris, who was 17, in 2003.

Wallsend mother Alison Madgin’s daughter, Samantha, died at the age of 18 after she was stabbed in 2007.

As well as hearing about their work in the region’s schools, Ms Cooper got to try out pioneering virtual reality computer software designed to educate young people about the danger of carrying a knife.

The fully immersive experience, from Round Midnight, gives users wearing a headset the chance to enter a choose-your-own-path film where they meet teenagers in a potentially deadly scenario.

Ms Cooper said: “The VR experience is incredibly powerful.

“All of us as parents worry about what our kids are seeing online and about new technology having a bad impact.

“Well, this is good example of using new technology to help kids learn and to help young people learn and discuss the serious consequences from carrying a knife and the serious damage that knife crime can do.”

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The Northern Echo: Yvette Cooper tries the VR knife crime experience Yvette Cooper tries the VR knife crime experience (Image: North News)Round Midnight were introduced to the taskforce by County Durham magistrate Jacqui Molyneux following a conversation with Darlington MP Peter Gibson after he attended an earlier meeting.

He said: “This is a complex problem which we must tackle and the connections made today and the range of support and resources available to educate our communities about better decisions is an essential tool help drive this problem down.”

There were also representatives from North East schools, Cleveland Police, Durham Constabulary and Northumbria Police and Crime Commissioner Kim McGuiness as well as Sedgefield MP Paul Howell.

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The Northern Echo: The North East Knife Crime Taskforce meeting on Wednesday The North East Knife Crime Taskforce meeting on Wednesday (Image: Sarah Caldecott)Round Midnight chief executive Claire Downes said: “There were some incredible people in the room, all movers and shakers who can actually make a real difference.

“The Northern Echo is perfectly placed to do this kind of work because it is representing the area and is listening to the community and reporting on what is happening across the region.

“It is quite ground-breaking for a newspaper to do something like this.  

“Bringing people together like this to solve a problem is genius really and the Northern Echo should be applauded.”