In Middlesbrough, I found drug dealers and their victims

In a community blighted by the crack and heroin trade, few believe that politicians can help

‘If you don’t stab them, they’ll stab you.” It is hard to believe anyone would think like that, let alone say it on the BBC News at Ten. But here we were, my camera crew, producer and I, reporting on the streets of Middlesbrough, interviewing local teenagers. What happened next was genuinely disturbing.

One teenager, a self-confessed street level drug dealer, pulled out a large knife, calmly and confidently. “You’ve got to carry,” he said, “it’s brutal round here.” I was in North Ormesby, one of the town’s most deprived areas and, as the knife moved in his hand, his three friends laughed. One asked if I wanted to see an “even bigger thing”. All of them agreed they were prepared to stab other dealers. They said they were 18, all wore balaclavas, and I had no reason to doubt any of them.