DAVID BECKHAM has recalled how a friend’s promising football career was ended after a knife attack left him paralysed.

Speaking at the launch of a new Government anti-knife crime campaign, Beckham told a press conference he witnessed the consequences of knife crime when he was a teenager growing up in Waltham Forest.

He told how Glenn Fielder, the brother of one of his best friends, was stabbed during a fight in Chingford.

He said: "When I was 13 years the brother of one of my best friends was just about to sign a professional contract with Leyton Orient and he was walking down the street one afternoon when he saw a fight break out.

"He went over to help and ended up getting stabbed in the back and was paralysed. It's been going on for a long time, no one wants to see the devastation my friend and his family went through."

Mr Fielder was attending a party at Larkswood Social Centre in Chingford in 1988 when violence flared.

Speaking at the trial of attacker Paul Bunce at Snaresbrook Crown Court, Mr Fielder said he had not been drinking alcohol on the night because he was due to play football the next day.

He said: "I was punched in the body, chest, and head. I was also kicked in the head. I can't remember the knife going in."

Sentencing Bunce, Judge Ian Pollock said: "This is a dreadful case. Glenn Fielder was subjected to a totally unprovoked attack. You stabbed him in the back and the knife passed through the bone and almost totally severed the spinal column."

Mr Bunce was convicted of wounding with intent and spent time in jail.

Beckham, Rio Ferdinand, and David James joined Home Secretary Jacqui Smith at the launch of the Government's 'It Doesn't Have to Happen' campaign two days before England take on the Czech Republic at Wembley.

Beckham added: "It's so important that we get involved in this, it's so important that we believe that things can change, because no-one wants to pack their children off to school in the morning and then never see them again."

The initiative follows a spate of fatal stabbings in London, including two in Waltham Forest this year.