The murder of 15-year-old Elianne Andam on her way to school has prompted a call for action on knife crime that one activist says will not be enough.
The News Movement met Faron Alex Paul - known as a knife crime “vigilante” who works in the spaces police can’t access to get weapons off the streets.
Faron, 37, said he was tired of the familiar cycle of outrage that follows a knife murder and called for a joined-up approach to ending the violence and limiting access to knives.
Speaking to TNM after Elianne was stabbed to death in Croydon, south London, Faron said: “You know for a young girl to be stabbed and killed in our streets, I think it highlights how much of a problem we've got and nobody's accepting the problem we got."
Faron runs a one-man, non-profit organisation called Fazamensty putting his life on the line to incentivise young people to give up their weapons.
He wears a stab proof vest to make his collections, which he has been carrying out for more than five years.
In that time he’s collected more than 1,300 knives, axes, swords and other blades as well as 10 firearms.
TNM joined him as he took his latest collection - two samurai swords, an axe, a zombie knife and a folding knife - to hand in a Tottenham police station in north London.
He said stabbings and knife murders are constant in London but that the press and authorities only pay attention for short periods and little is done to achieve sustainable change. “When young women are being killed on the street, if the community don’t want to admit and the local authority and police don’t want to admit we got a problem, then that's a bigger problem.
“And that's the thing - when serious knife crime incidents happen, everybody comes in, they show their support, but they get their stories and they're gone again.”
“This happens every day in the streets. Every single day someone is harmed or killed in the streets through knife crime. “This is a problem that we need to fix - from the government to the parents to the local authorities. We need to come together and start making a safer community for these young children.”
In a statement just before a 17-year-old boy was charged with Elianne’s murder, her family said: We, as a family, are struggling to comprehend this painful tragedy that has happened to our beautiful daughter and beloved sister Elianne.
"Our hearts are broken and we are overwhelmed by sorrow and grief. Our faith in the Lord is strengthening us,” they said.
Faron said he was concerned at the ease with which weapons can be bought online or in shops and the lack of care parents take to be sure their kitchen knives aren’t leaving the house.
He said that young people - almost always boys and young men - pick up weapons for reasons ranging from fear to status to peer pressure.
In a message to young people who might be picking up knives, he said: “Youngers. You know all it takes is one second for your life to change forever.
One stab wound, nerve damage, trauma. I went from being a grade A athlete to getting stabbed and getting so much damage that it prevented me from pursuing my career.
“I got stabbed in my head. I got stabbed in my ear. I got stabbed through my neck. Youngers, I'm telling you no lies,” he added, showing the scars on his neck.
“I'm telling you now, you get stabbed, you go to jail for a long time. You are messing up your future. So before you get into a situation where you're physically forced to have to think different and do different, try to do different.”