A former Detective Superintendent and a convicted armed robber have formed an unlikely alliance in a bid to tackle gang crime, drug abuse and cyber-bullying among young people.
Paul Bourne, 50, who was a Metropolitan police officer for 30 years, has founded Play it Safe, which runs school workshops to teach 10 to 18-year-olds about the dangers, and consequences, of criminal activity in London.
He has now recruited Danny Lewis, 30, a convicted armed robber who spent five years behind bars, to help.
Mr Lewis told the Standard: “I was dealing drugs and then I started taking them. For 12 months I was a mess — just in a drug-induced bubble. I started stealing to pay for my habit.
“In the end, I was jailed for 20 years for four counts of armed robbery. My sentences ran concurrently and I served five.” Mr Lewis, from Woolwich, said he got involved with Play It Safe after his girlfriend suggested he could use his background to help others.
He said: “Kids always ask me what it was like in prison. Their faces drop when I tell them. I think there is a lot of naivety among young people. They think it’s cool to be behind bars or that they will get an easy life. I hated every second. There will always be some idiot who says, ‘Oh it’s easy in there. It’s a laugh’. But they are lying.”
The organisation targets a variety of pupils, including those who have been excluded from or cannot attend mainstream school due to behavioural issues and minor convictions.
Mr Bourne, from Hackney, said pupils were responding well to “real-life experiences” and the scheme’s “hard-hitting and interactive” workshops.
He added: “A lot of young people do not realise that one stupid mistake can lead to a conviction and how that can change your life.”
On his unlikely alliance, Mr Bourne said he “wasn’t surprised” that he was working with a former criminal as he’d “worked alongside offenders all my professional life”.
But Mr Lewis admitted he “never thought he’d work with a copper”, adding: “Paul is great and he and this scheme have given me something to live for.
“He still talks like an officer though. I guess some things won’t change.”
