‘Life has become so valueless, it is out of hand’

VINCENT JACKSON stands at the site where a 19-year-old was fatally stabbed with his own knife.

A memorial, festooned with flowers and messages, marks where Gavin “Sponge” Weldon died over three years ago. The location, outside Molloy’s Off-Licence, is at the busy junction of Le Fanu Road and Ballyfermot Road in south-west Dublin.

After Weldon’s death on July 5, 2005, Vincent Jackson, an independent councillor and youth worker in Ballyfermot and Clondalkin, called on young people to resolve rows in other ways than by using knives.

“Life has become so valueless,” he told the Irish Examiner at the time. “Another life is lost needlessly. The only hope is young people will learn, in some shape or form, there are other ways of sorting out issues than resorting to knives.”

In 2007, a 23-year-old man, Gary Gleeson, was found not guilty of killing Mr Weldon. The court had heard Mr Weldon had spent all day drinking and met friends outside a chip shop beside the off-licence.

Mr Gleeson and his brother passed, walking their two pit bull dogs.

Mr Weldon shouted at them: “The state of your pit bulls”, to which Mr Gleeson replied: “Yeah. I know,” and continued crossing the road.

Mr Weldon then shouted: “What do you mean, I know?”

CCTV footage showed Mr Weldon running towards the brothers with a bottle raised.

He caught Mr Gleeson, who tried to run away, and brought the bottle down on his head.

A knife fell to the ground from Mr Weldon’s pocket. Both men reached for it, but Mr Gleeson grabbed it.

Mr Weldon continued to come at him with the bottle and he was stabbed with the knife.

Mr Jackson said the knife culture had grown in Ballyfermot and Clondalkin. “I have to say it’s gone out of hand. It’s not just little pocket knives, it’s Stanley knives, stuff that can inflict horrific injuries on people.”

He said there was a “huge amount” of young people with severe scars on their faces.

Mr Jackson said in the past young fellas might exchange a few blows in a row. “Young people believe ‘I have to have something like that to protect myself in case someone hops on me or something’, that creates in itself almost a domino effect.”

He said a lack of facilities for young people could not be argued as a factor. Two centres had just opened — a youth centre costing €7 million and a sports and leisure centre costing €18m.

He believes education was crucial and also believes parents had to realise they needed to take responsibility.

“I don’t like to blame parents, because it’d easy, but one golden rule of youth work when dealing with parents of children is ‘do you know what they are doing late into the evening’.

“There needs to be parental supervision at early age, it’s too late at 15 or 16, because the foundation has set in and a belief they can do what they want.”