EXCLUSIVE:’Stop comparing what is happening on our streets today to the Krays, they wasted their life, do not waste yours’-Chris Lambrianou.

Former gangster talks about the horrors of knife crime on our streets today.

Instead of calling out the horrors of knife crime on our streets today, people are choosing to normalise it by stating that knife crime has always existed and 60s gangsters such as the Kray twins carried knives, making it acceptable in our society.Bereaved mothers who have watched CCTV footage in court of their child being murdered by another child, do not find it acceptable. Children killing children on the streets with knives did not happen in the 60s. Yes, the Kray twins carried knives, but why are we using them as a comparison?

“Well look at just how successful they were. They spent more years in prison than out. Is that what you want?” says Chris Lambrianou who stood in the dock alongside Reginald and Ronald Kray in the country’s biggest murder trial in 1968.

“Children didn’t have knives back then, we had a ‘straighten on the cobbles’,” he tells us. Meaning if there was a disagreement children would have a scrap on the street. No knife carrying and no society where children were scared to talk to their parents.

“Talk to your children, find out what is going on in their lives. These youths are frightened and the only way they know how to deal with the fear is by going out carrying a knife. That’s not the way to live.Our society is a mess. Look at who is providing these children with knives and making money from them. Nobody seems to care about life, only money.”

Chris has been outside City Hall and 10 Downing Street to campaign with bereaved mothers and anti knife crime campaigners to add his support.

“These mums are incredible women, so courageous. They spend their time trying to stop our youth from going down the wrong path. People who compare today’s knife crime epidemic to the Krays and the 60s, do not know what they are talking about. Murder was infrequent then. It isn’t now. How used to children dying on the streets are we and sadly how used to it are our children. Is this the world we really want for them?

“Look at the Krays, where is the glory in dying in prison? Murder does not pay. I spent 15 years in some of the toughest prisons in the country, I went to some very dark places there. Prison then was hard. I faced maximum security because of who I was. I knew when I left that there had to be a better way of life and I have never looked back since.

“I have been on many anti knife crime protests and met many bereaved mothers. I have seen the pain on their face. These are the people we need to be listening to, speaking to. Yet their voices are rarely heard.

“When I came out of prison, I was a completely different person. I saw the pain I had put my family through. Going to prison not only ruined my life, by my whole family’s life too. Do not do this to your parents.”

Chris is one of the very few left who stood in the dock alongside the Kray twins and faced 15 years for the murder of Jack McVitie. McVitie was murdered by Reginald Kray in 1967 and Chris fell under the Joint Enterprise rule that saw him charged with a murder he did not commit. Not only did he not commit it, but he wasn’t even at the location when the murder took place. Despite this, he was imprisoned for 15 years and faced a horrendous incarceration due to his connection with the Krays. Now he clearly speaks out against the world of crime.

“There is no glory in any of it. The evidence is clear in that.If you carry a knife, chances are you will use it and if you use it, you end multiple lives including your own, your family and the victim’s family.

“The answer here is rehabilitation. Educating our youths, talking to them and most importantly listening to what they say.

“Stop comparing what is happening on our streets today to the Krays, they wasted their life, do not waste yours.”

Chris on the day he came out of prison after serving 15 years.

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