Knife Angel arrives in Sunderland

Tanya and Simon Brown, of the Connor Brown Trust,  and Coun Kelly Chequer speak as the Knife Angel arrives in Sunderland.

Transcript

00:00 So Tanya and Simon, the Knife Angel arrives in Sunderland today, can you tell us a bit more about the sculpture?

00:06 So the Knife Angel was designed by the British Ironworks. It has 100,000 blades used in crime and knife amnesties around the UK.

00:17 It stands 27 foot high and the importance of the Knife Angel to us as a family, it means that families bring the young people along.

00:29 They speak with regards to the Knife Angel and tell the people the importance, why it was made.

00:36 It opens up the conversation about how it's wrong to carry blades, how it's wrong to carry knives. There's no need to pick up a knife.

00:44 And there's a series of workshops, isn't there, throughout the month?

00:48 Yeah, we've got a full month planned of educational based workshops here in City Hall.

00:54 These are for young people from years 5, 6 upwards and we are looking forward to them.

01:02 This will be centred around the story of what happened to Connor, the impact it had on us as a family,

01:07 but also the wide impact it has on perpetrators, witnesses, the police and everybody.

01:14 Literally, it has an impact on everybody.

01:16 Then we'll obviously have that conversation about the Knife Angel, how the Knife Angel came about,

01:22 what it represents and take them over to the Knife Angel to have that open conversation around the Angel itself

01:29 and how it makes them feel, what are they looking at, can they understand it.

01:34 It's about that engagement with the young people in the conversation.

01:37 And it's a really powerful piece of art, isn't it?

01:40 It certainly is. We saw it in 2009, shortly after Connor was taken from us.

01:46 Our emotions were running high to start with.

01:48 We only briefly went, we left some flowers and a photograph of Connor, but we had to leave because our emotions ran so high.

01:57 We saw it again in Gateshead when Samantha's Legacy brought it.

02:00 And then we saw it in Redcoat when it was there a couple of years ago, when Teresa Cave brought it back again.

02:07 Every time we visit it, it's a different set of emotions.

02:11 And we always say to anybody who wants to visit the Angel, visit it twice.

02:15 Come during the day and come in the night time when it's lit up because the emotions are completely different.

02:21 Councillor Checker, the Knife Angel arrives today in Sunderland.

02:24 What do you hope it will achieve by being in the city?

02:27 It's incredibly moving to have the Knife Angel here in Sunderland across the month of June.

02:33 I'm really pleased to see it here. It's a brilliant tribute to Connor.

02:38 I'm so pleased that Tanya and Simon are here to welcome it and to share the legacy of Connor.

02:44 As a parent, I can't imagine losing a child.

02:48 For this couple to channel that devastation into something so positive in Connor's legacy is fantastic.

02:55 Over this month, we've got some really good opportunities.

02:58 I encourage everyone to come and visit the Angel and to take away some of the messages from it.

03:03 But also the workshops that we've got happening here in City Hall will be fantastic for engaging young people

03:10 and understanding the devastating impact of knife crime and the positive impact of Connor's legacy

03:16 reducing knife crime, especially here in our city.