Livingston boss David Martindale issues gang culture warning to violent youths heading for life of crime

dailyrecord.co.uk:

Livingston 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 choosing 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 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.