Detective pens anti-knife crime book based on fatal Sheffield stabbing which ruined two young lives

The lives of two individuals, and two families, can be destroyed in a matter of seconds when a knife is used to kill someone. 

That is the message from Detective Constable Thomas Ryan, whose experience of the devastation caused to the lives of both victims and perpetrators, and those closest to them, through unsurvivable stabbings has prompted him to pen a book detailing the life-changing and irreversible consequences for the person responsible. 

“For the last three years I have worked in our major crime unit and have been in charge of four murder investigations. These have all involved the use of a knife, and left five young men dead, with their attackers who are also young men or even boys, spending a long time behind bars,” Det Con Ryan said. 

Through his book, entitled ‘For My Own Protection,’ Det Con Ryan wants to bring home the very real consequences to the ‘would-be stabber’. 

“I’m not telling them not to do it. I want them to be aware of the consequences should they do it,” he said. 

When asked why his message to those ‘would-be stabbers’ focuses on the consequences instead of explicitly telling them ‘not to do it,’ Det Con Ryan added: “I’m not telling them not to do it, because I don’t think they would listen to me. What I want them to do, is to be aware, I don’t want them to go into it blindly. I want them to be fully aware of what could happen to them if they do it [stab someone].”

“Everyone has sympathy for the victim and holds righteous anger towards the murderer who has done this to them and caused such pain to their family. But the family and friends of the person who has been killed are not the only victims.

“Have you ever thought of what the murderer has done to himself? What pain he has caused his own family? Who weeps for the mother who grieves the loss of her son as he begins a prison sentence that will last decades? More importantly, does the young man ever think of the effect that him using a knife will have on his own life?”

For My Own Protection is based on a real story around a fatal Sheffield stabbing, investigated by Det Con Ryan and his team, which was carried out by a 17-year-old boy. Det Con Ryan has not shared any further details on the real life case.

He explained: “It’s a short story from the point of view of a young man, who decides to carry a knife for various reasons, for his own protection. To impress his friends, to be someone - not just no-one - to be a bad boy, to impress a girl.”

“There’s a line in the book: ‘I lose it, I use it, I stab and I kill’. And the book is about the consequences of what happens.”

“The message is: I know you want to hurt the person you’re stabbing, but when you do that, at exactly the same time you’re hurting them, you’re hurting yourself.” 

“People will think it’s strange that I’m talking about saving the life of the murderer, but their life is also over once they kill, as they will spend most of their life in prison when we catch them – and we will catch them,” Det Con Ryan said. 

The book follows the young protagonist in the aftermath of the fatal stabbing, as he is tried for, and ultimately convicted of, murder, and receives a sentence of life imprisonment, to serve a minimum of 18 years. 

Det Con Ryan explained that once the protagonist in the book is sentenced to life imprisonment, the girl he was interested in -  who he was hoping to impress by carrying a knife - moves on within a couple of months, and the friends who initially supported him stop visiting him in prison.

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“He’s got 18 long years in prison, before he can even be considered for release,” Det Con Ryan said.

He said the book is called For My Own Protection in a bid to dispel the myth that young men need to carry knives for their own protection, drawing on statistics which suggest you are far more likely to be the victim of knife crime if you carry a blade yourself.  

Prior to joining the force’s major crimes unit, and investigating murders, Det Con Ryan worked in reactive CID in Sheffield for 10 years, in charge of numerous serious investigations, many of which involved extreme violence being inflicted by the use of a knife. 

“It’s a conveyor belt of young men stabbing other young men,” he said. 

Det Con Ryan says it is too late to help someone by the time they have taken another young man’s life with the use of a knife because their life will be on hold while they spend decades behind bars, serving time for their fatal stabbing.

His hope to reach those individuals whose lives have perhaps gotten on to the wrong track, and is hoping that his book can be shared in schools, colleges and custody suites. 

Det Con Ryan and South Yorkshire Police are hoping to get the book published as soon as possible, and currently have a timescale for it to be in the hands of readers within the next couple of months. 

They are currently welcoming artwork submissions from local community groups and artists, asking contributors to demonstrate what the consequences of knife crime mean to them. 

South Yorkshire Police believe Det Con Ryan’s book may be the first of its kind. 

“I’ve never personally seen a book or an intervention that is saying to the would-be stabber: ‘Listen, think about what you are going to do to yourself’ - that’s the point,” he said.

“I just want them to have an awareness that when you hurt that person, you’re hurting yourself.”