LIVINGSTON FC BOSS DAVID MARTINDALE We've got to do more to help kids thinking about getting involved in gang violence

Gaffer uses personal experience to warn youngsters off life of crime | Government urged to do more to keep children off the streets

- RUTH SUTER

LIVINGSTON boss boss David Martindale has told how being stabbed and slashed as a teenager drove him to a life of gang violence in a bid to gain “social status”. 

Martindale is speaking out to warn youths who are tempted to become involved in gang culture about the serious consequences of a life of crime.

The football gaffer is backing the Record’s Our Kids... Our Future campaign, which aims to take kids off the streets by demanding the Scottish Government ring-fence funding for community resources.

The dad of two – who became the manager at Livingston Football Club in 2020 – opened up about his own experience with youth violence and how his involvement in gangs led him down a path of personal destruction.

The 49-year-old told the Record: “I was stabbed and slashed when I was in my late teens.

“It’s sad to say this but that kind of stuff was a normal part of growing up in the 90s in the scheme where I was from.  

“Then I fell into gang culture because being associated with a gang added to your social status and the other people in the gang became your family.

“We used to congregate on the streets and there was a lot of fighting between football casuals. But when you’re involved in gangs, you need to win.

“Then it escalates, from taking part in scuffles, to carrying weapons. Over the years, I saw everything from knife violence to gun violence.

“But I don’t think kids understand how serious carrying weapons and gang violence can be. It can spiral out of control.”

Martindale’s involvement in gangs led him to his first jail term at the age of just 16.

He was sent to Polmont Young Offenders Institute after he was convicted for his involvement in a mass brawl.