Nardone Restart

My story starts in a very dysfunctional household. This included my mother, who was only eighteen years old, and my father who suffered from paranoid schizophrenia. At home I was subjected to physical and emotional abuse for as long as I can remember. Preferring to be out on the streets rather than at home meant spending more time around drug dealers and criminals.

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This in turn lead me down a path of  prolific offending. Starting off as petty robberies this then developed into other crimes. At the age of 12 I was taken into care away from home, being alienated from my family further pushed me into crime. It was not long before I was moved to my second foster placement 100 miles away from home, which made me even more vulnerable. I had no family, no friends and was in an unfamiliar place. This isolation eventually led to me being groomed into a county lines gang, this is where I thought I had found a family.

 

This was only the beginning of my experience of criminal exploitation, during my time in care I was moved to almost every corner of the UK. Crime became my job and with no support and no other options this continued into adulthood. as I got older I then became the problem that I now fight today,

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I had always wanted to escape that life but it took a long time. I felt like I was knees deep, it was extremely hard to leave it behind and took many attempts. After two years I was able to break free from it.

 

Now I have time to reflect on my past I have decided that I want to use my story and experience to prevent this from happening to others. I now work closely with agencies to share my experience so together we can change the system that failed me. 

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