New documentary to be made featuring loved ones of victims of fatal stabbings in Sheffield

The project currently has the working title ‘Victims’ Voices’ as part of which award-winning anti-knife campaigner, Anthony Olaseinde, is set to create a documentary with interviews from the loved ones of Sheffield and South Yorkshire knife crime victims.

Anthony said he is hoping to interview people close to Sheffielders who have lost their lives to knife crime, including the loved ones of 21-year-old Kavan Brissett, whose killer has never been caught following the alleyway stabbing in Upperthorpe in August 2018 which led to his untimely death; Brett Blake, who died in a pre-meditated knife attack at Sheffield nightclub, Uniq, in 2008; 35-year-old Marcus Ramsay, who was knifed in the heart when large scale disorder broke out in Horninglow Road, Firth Park, in August 2020 and dad-of-three, Danny Irons, who was stabbed in the heart at around midnight on April 16/17, 2021, leading him to collapse and die on Fretson Green, Manor.

Anthony said: “The aim of this project is to give families and friends of victims of knife crime in South Yorkshire a voice. We will create a documentary, which will allow us to see the true devastation that knife crime causes from people that are still living with the pain.”

A hand made memorial plaque of lost loved ones will be added to the Tree of Opportunity – a sculpture made by scrap metal artist Jason Heppenstall from knives, knuckle dusters and other weapons recovered from across South Yorkshire.

A bio with pictures of the lost loved ones will be added to a memorial web page so people viewing the sculpture can find out those featured.

Anthony founded Always an Alternative, a company aimed at challenging the mindset of young people around serious youth violence, child criminal exploitation and child sexual exploitation and has helped to take countless knives off South Yorkshire’s streets through providing amnesty bins. His mission to rid Sheffield communities of the scourge of knife crime, came after growing up around knife and gun violence, so much so that it ‘became the norm’.

“I got involved in some things I shouldn’t have when I was younger. I was always around violence and drugs and went into it thinking it was normal,” said Anthony, adding: “I promised myself that if I got the opportunity, I would do everything I could to stop knife crime.”

Anthony, who is also the co-owner of a children’s home called Limitless, is the proud recipient of awards including: a 2022 Points of Light Award Winner; the Positive Role Model Award at the 2021 National Diversity Awards and a 2019 winner of the Let's Make a Difference Award.

The documentary and Tree of Opportunity will be shown at Sheffield Town Hall for two weeks in March 2023, and there will be talks from those who have taken part. It will then tour South Yorkshire.

Anthony is keen to speak to anyone whose life has been affected by knife crime, and anyone wanting to get involved with the Victims’ Voices project or documentary should email him at [email protected]