A TEENAGE former gang member has said a project tackling violence among young people has saved his life.

In 2009 the Metropolitan Police secretly set up a scheme using mentors to act as mediators between gangs to resolve disputes.

The force was unsure if it would be successful, but has now made details public for the first time amid hopes it may be expanded beyond just the most serious cases, if extra funding is provided.

John, 17, whose surname we are witholding for his own safety, has spent most of his teenage years in a gang, but tried to leave after becoming disillusioned. He said: “I didn’t want to live that life any more. It went from nothing to people getting stabbed over tiny things.”

But escape was far from easy. Fellow gang members began a campaign of harassment against him, beating him up, throwing bricks at his home and even kidnapping his girlfriend.

In one particularly chilling mind-game, gang members arranged for an unsuspecting undertaker to arrive at John’s home to collect his body.

Police were unable to make arrests but were so concerned that John was classified as high risk, and mediator Damion Roberts was called in.

Mr Roberts, 31, is part of the 32-strong team at Capital Conflict Management, the company contracted to carry out the project across the capital.

He took up John’s case, spending time with him and using his own experiences as a reformed gang member to build up trust.

He said: “We identified the ringleader and started to talk with him about the situation and the consequences of what could happen to him.

“He started to engage a little bit and then things started to stop.”

The scheme relies on the mediator’s independence from the police, with all information kept confidential unless someone’s life is in danger.

“We are successful in the majority of cases,” said Mr Roberts. “Frequently in gangs they want revenge for something, but often it comes from a misunderstanding or miscommunication.

“The main thing I’ve learnt is that if they communicate with each other you can find peaceful solutions.”

Mr Roberts, who also runs the Millwall Leadership Project helping young people get apprenticeships, has additionally been heavily involved in mediating a recent dispute between gangs in Leytonstone and Walthamstow over a shooting, which stemmed from a row over drugs.

Meanwhile John is now at college and hopes to take up an apprenticeship. “It’s good. If it wasn’t for all this I’d probably be dead now”, he said.

Click here to follow the Waltham Forest Guardian on Twitter

Click here to follow the Waltham Forest Guardian on Facebook