HE grew up being bullied and intimidated in a culture where race relations were fractious to say the least.

Sheldon Thomas found violence and its thrills exhilarating.

By the time he was 14, he says, beating someone to a pulp with a baseball bat or ratchet was part of life.

It sounds horrific and it got worse.

“Four gunmen came into a nightclub and were shooting towards me, but the bullets blew the head off the guy next to me and his blood spattered over me.

“That was my divine moment,” said Sheldon.

Now 52, Sheldon now runs the Gangsline charity.

It has been chosen by Essex Police to deliver training and workshops to tackle youth gang culture which is showing a worrying increase in Essex.

Sheldon, who is now married with four children, describes his former lifestyle as being in a posse and it’s his frank admission about his past mistakes which he hopes will help youngsters take a different path.

“I am going to use my experience of my life to show them that this is severity of it - you could end up stabbed, doing 25 years in prison or with mental health issues because of what you have become involved in. We are going to tell them the down side.”

Sheldon now lives in south Essex but grew up in Brixton in London against the backdrop of racial animosity in the 1960s.

As tensions rose,the far right group, the National Front organisation was formed in the late 1960s which claimed only white people should be UK citizens.

Sheldon said: “Many young black kids decided to form groups ourselves and I was in one of the first - Blackmerier Posse.

“We spent many years fighting racist police officers before we got involved in drug dealing and gangs.

“We were called posses to align ourselves with the West Indies.

“It happened after years of being bullied, intimidated by police officers, we grew up with a sense of hatred.”

As he reflects on his wayward youth, Sheldon feels shame for the violence nurtured by the gang culture. But at the time, it was a way of life.

He admits: “I was called an enforcer. I liked beating people up.

“I walked around with a baseball bat or ratchet - that’s what I would do.”

In one of his most memorable incidents, Sheldon and two others threw a bus conductor off a moving bus in Trafalgar Square and the driver ended up in a serious condition in hospital.

But like many of Sheldon’s other crimes, Sheldon admits sometimes he would attack people who owed cash to drug dealers, adding: “It was fun for me but by the time I was 22 I stopped.”

It was that close shave with death in the East End night club which made Sheldon walk away from the dangerous lifestyle he’d led for more than five years.

“I’d thought I was invincible,” he said.

He was not.

Today, he uses his experiences to try to teach others not to follow the same path as him.

He formed Gangsline which he has been running for ten years now, and employs former gang members.

Its workshops in schools encouraging young people and teachers to look out for the signs of being groomed or exploited to join gangs.

The training is based on trying to understand the psychology behind carrying a weapon which could stem from an individual’s family background.

Sheldon said unlike London, Essex Police has tried to intervene before it is too late.

The statistics reflect the need to act now to protect children before they are lured into gangs.

A recent report claimed abuse is happening to more children in Essex. Of 101 known cases of children at risk of sexual exploitation in a year, 20 per cent had links with gangs.

Essex’s Police and Crime Commissioner Roger Hirst has commissioned the pilot programme in which Gangsline is involved.

More than 1,000 people from secondary schools, pupil referral units and community safety partnerships will be trained by Gangsline to identify young people at risk of being exploited by gangs.

Mr Hirst explained: “Gangs exploit some of the most vulnerable young people in our community, bringing them into a culture of crime, drugs and abuse.

“Tackling gangs is a priority in my Police and Crime Plan. This pathway into exploitation can be stopped by early identification and effective intervention.

“Once identified, those at risk of being exploited will be supported by a network of highly skilled specialists, including some ex-gang members, who will work with young people at risk to tackle the issues affecting them and help them turn their lives around.”

The two-year pilot, costing £200,000, is set to start this spring.

Gangsline will be funded by the police and crime commissioner to deliver the pilot scheme.

It is anticipated that direct support will be delivered to 50 vulnerable young people a year and Gangsline will be required to submit reports outlining what impact the initiative had on those young people that took part.

There will also be a requirement to evidence how the awareness raising element of the service improved the life choices and responsiveness to those identified as being at risk of harm.

Issues such as family breakdown, anger, the consequences of societal rejection, emotional hurt, unresolved conflict, a missing sense of belonging, the dangers of the disillusioned and the despair of struggling parents and absent fathers have all had a massive contribution to the choices made by many socially excluded young people.

Gangsline focuses on notions of responsibility, morality, positive thinking, anger management, self- belief, leadership, success and purpose to help support these youngsters.

Supt Paul Wells, Essex Police’s lead on tackling gang related crime, welcomed the pilot scheme.

He said: “It is excellent news that the Police and Crime Commissioner for Essex has commissioned Gangsline to carry out key training to help education professionals in Essex identify youngsters at risk of being exploited by gangs.

“Essex is a safe place to live but we know there are gangs who travel into our county to sell drugs and cause violence and our specialist teams robustly deal with them.

Supt Paul Wells, Essex Police’s lead on tackling gang related crime, said: “Gangs and their activity can have a devastating impact on both the community and those who become involved with them. By tackling the issue early in someone’s life and offering proactive intervention it can help them avoid falling into a cycle of criminality.”

The recent Essex Safeguarding Children Report took an in depth look into the county’s situation between April 2015 and March 2016.

It was presented to Essex County Council’s people and families scrutiny committee, the people in charge of making sure systems are in place to keep children safe., last Thursday.As well as children being abused for gang exploitation, it found almost 750 child protection plans were made, up about 20 per cent, to keep children safe. There are 101 known cases of children at risk of sexual exploitation with social service involvement.

About 20 per cent have links with gangs and most are girls aged 15 and 16-years-old.

The report also revealed about 33 young people in care were reported missing every month and about 37 from their homes.

415 went missing last year and 33 went missing ten times or more.

About 1,000 children every month are affected by domestic abuse.

There are several wards with particularly high rates, including six unspecified wards in Colchester.

The report revealed 6,000 crimes reported against under 18-year-olds, with 3,500 involving violence and a thousand of those against children aged 11 or younger, mostly by their parents.

Rates have increased 33 per cent with an increase of 11 per cent in the number of sexual offences.

It is a serious situation but there is hope - as long as it is not too late.