Knife Angel arrives in Gloucester
The 27 foot monument is designed to raise awareness of knife crime
Last updated 1st Feb 2023
The Knife angel has arrived in Gloucester ahead of an opening ceremony at Gloucester Cathedral this evening.
The National Monument Against Violence and Aggression aims to create awareness around violent crime.
The ceremony later will kick of a month of action, which runs through February.
The Knife Angel, created by the British Ironwork Centre, is a monument that travels to locations around the UK acting as a focal point to help educate children and adults about the harmful effects that violent behaviour has on communities. The hefty 3.5 tonne Angel is made out of confiscated blades received from 43 Police Forces across the UK.
It's arrival in Gloucester will see a month of events, workshops and other activities across the city involving a range of organisation and people of all ages and backgrounds.
Some of the events will mark Gloucestershire's knife crime victims. On the 17th and 18th of February people will be asked to where purple for Hollie Gazzard. She was a victim of knife crime, domestic violence and stalking.
The Ramarni Trust are also organising 5k pubic runs/walks from the 20th to the 26th in memory of Ramarni Crosby.
Delroy Ellis is the founder of YES Mentoring and anti knife charity Increase the Peace. He supports children and young who are at risk of being involved in knife crime. He hopes the Knife Angel will bring organisations together.
He said, "we all need to come together and see what we can all do, see what resources we have to address the problem of young people carrying knives.
"A lot of the kids that I'm working with at the moment, say that carrying a knife gets them respect, and I say 'what about earning respect?'
"They say 'earning respect takes a long time but getting respect, if I'm carrying a knife I get respect.'
"That is scary when you think we are talking 11/12 year old boys."
Delroy Ellis tells us he is inundated with teenagers and parents handing him a knife, last week a young person handed him a machete that was more than 60cm long.
"I'm hoping that the Angel being here is the big stone that impacts and the ripple effect is agencies, local authorises, local councils and politicians understand that this is a problem that we have had for nearly 10 years."
A special evensong and ceremony will take place at Gloucester Cathedral tonight to mark the arrival of the Knife Angel and kick off events to raise awareness of violent crime.