• The photos of knife wounds an A&E nurse is using to educate teens may shock some readers

A senior A&E nurse at St George's Hospital is showing school children graphic images of knife wounds in a bid to turn the tide against the capital's knife crime epidemic.

Johnny Wells - lead nurse at the Tooting hospital - sees stab victims daily and now wants to educate teenagers by showing them the results of horrific injuries first hand.

Mr Wells says teenagers do not realise how easy it is to kill with a knife.

He also believes Government plans to make doctors report stab victims could be counter-productive.

He said: "Reporting stab victims is a difficult one. If we think someone who comes in has been involved in serious crime we try and get police involved but we have to think of patient confidentiality.

"We are one of the few professions trusted by the public and if we reported all stab wounds would people still come to hospital?

"If they are in a gang they want to keep that quiet, they don't want to get police involved but I'm quite surprised people who have serious wounds are so reluctant to get police involved."

Mr Wells said accident and emergency departments don't keep "proper records" of knife injuries but admitted there had been an increase in the number of stabbings.

"There has been an increase in stab wounds over the last couple of years. It is getting more violent out there. We have about 10 stabbings a week, and one or two is a serious stabbing - where someone has to stay in overnight," he said.

And after more than six years in A&E he remains convinced teenagers have not grasped how dangerous knives are - or what the long- term effects of knife wounds actually mean.

"For the last three years I have been working with social services and police and with young offenders who have been involved with knives," Mr Wells added.

"They don't realise how easy it is to kill. I show them very gory slides of what a knife injury looks like and I tell them it is so easy to kill with a knife.

"Damilola Taylor the 10-year-old who died in Peckham was stabbed with a bottle in an artery and bled to death. And it is easy to hit the chest, heart or lung.

"I tell them, You may have a knife for protection but if you use it you can kill someone'.

"Shock tactics don't always work but I try and get through to them how serious it can be.

"They are also shocked when they I show them the disabilities it can cause. Some kids have to have a colostomy or stoma bags (which collect movements from the bowel and colon when they are damaged) for life. Teenagers believe they are invincible but we have to show them the reality."

While Mr Wells says graphic images make the point they are not the final answer.

He added: "Some of these kids have been mugged two or three times and say they carry knives for their own defence, but I say instead of carrying knives teach these kids martial arts so they know how to react if they are attacked."

He says changing the cultural habits of a generation is the next step and money spent on TV advertising campaigns would be better spent on building youth provisions.

"They need something to do. The money that is spent in advertising needs to be given to those working in groups at ground level."

But that change will not happen overnight, and until then the nurse has to leave a powerful and lasting impression with youngsters in the way that will affect them most.

Closing his presentation he tells them: "If you get stabbed and you die you are the property of the crown. You are a crime scene. If your mother comes up to the hospital to see you we are not allowed to let her in until doctors do a post mortem on you, to check for DNA and fibres.

How can I tell you mother that she can't see her dead child?"

  • Mr Wells is offering to give a presentation to any school in south London. For more information contact johnny.wells@stgeorges.nhs.uk
  • What do you think? Are shock tactics the way to stop knife crime? Let us know in the comments section below.