Kids watch surgeons fight to save knife-crime victims on virtual reality headset

Death in Paradise star Ralf Little is fighting crime in a critically important new role - fronting an immersive video campaign to warn schoolchildren about the danger of knives.

Children use VR headsets to follow the actor, as he interviews parents who have lost children to knife crime, air ambulance pilots and police custody sergeants.

Ralf, whose brother is a surgeon at Royal Liverpool University Hospital and who was studying medicine when he dropped out to star in The Royle Family, also goes into operating theatres, where victims are treated.

The virtual reality means viewers are immersed in the situation - rather than viewing it in a detached manner on a flat screen - and are able to look all around them, giving them a 360 degree perspective.

In one of the films, Ralf interviews Leeann White, whose 12-year-old daughter Ava was fatally stabbed while watching the lights being turned on in Liverpool on November 25, 2021.

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They speak in Leeann’s back garden, where there is a mural painted of her daughter, who was stabbed in the neck by a 14-year-old after she objected to a group of boys filming her and some friends for a Snapchat video.

Leeann explains how she hasn’t been able to work or enjoy Christmas since Ava’s death and now devotes all her time to going into schools to talk about knife crime, as well as raising funds for bleed control kits.

After saying he understands her struggle, Ralf tells her: “It feels like what’s the point?”

Praising the actor, Leeann says: “Ralf just seemed to get it so quickly, my pain, he was simply lovely and it’s amazing he’s given his time to help.”

Little also speaks to the family of Daniel Gee-Jamieson, 16, who bled to death in 2018 in his mother’s arms after being stabbed in a park in Liverpool.

The videos are a collaboration between an academy chain in Merseyside - the People’s Learning Trust - where they are being trialled this autumn; the north west charity KnifeSavers and award-winning production company, Ark Immersive, run by filmmaker and ex-Hollyoaks actor Matt Littler.

Consultant trauma surgeon at Aintree Hospital Nikhil Misra, who founded KnifeSavers in 2018 - a charity concentrating on installing bleed control kits in public places to save lives after stabbings - has provided lesson plans to go alongside the films in PHSE classes.

Nikhil said: “I started KnifeSavers after I lost a patient stabbed in a schoolyard brawl, and as a dad of two, I knew something had to be done.

“I was a total sceptic about these VR videos at first, but I’m a complete convert now. I was blown away at how sobering they are - really bringing home the horrible reality of what we are increasingly seeing in up and down the country.

“These videos transport you directly into my operating theatre to see the lived experiences of surgeons battling to save lives, you feel the ongoing pain of families ripped apart, you hear custody squires in police stations and air ambulance medics talk about being first responders, when they see a young life hanging by a thread. It’s incredibly powerful.”

Funded by the charity the Steve Morgan Foundation, the aim is for the films, which also show how to use bleed control kids, to be rolled out to schools nationwide next year,

Steve Baker, of the People’s Learning Trust says: “Matt Littler from Ark and I talked earlier this year about how the punitive approach to knife crime simply isn’t working, and wanted to do something proactive so kids really understood the consequences of their actions before they stabbed someone.

“These ground-breaking virtual reality films put the pupil directly into the awful and often terrifying situations that result from knife crime – it’s a completely different experience to watching footage on a flat TV screen, using cutting-edge tech to solve a problem that’s growing exponentially.

“Hearing a parent talk years later about the ongoing and devastating consequences of losing their child, or a surgeon explain the horror of losing a young life on an operating table, we feel massively confident they’ll make a difference.”

Steve recently returned from a fact-finding trip for the Trust to Kenya where local children trialled the headsets.

“They transform what would be a passive, potentially boring experience into one that’s instantly engaging and completely engrossing,” he says.

The Trust is providing 10 Meta Quest2 headsets, costing less than £200 each, for local schools during the current trial and is pledging further funds for schools in the region without access to them.

Steve said: “We’re hoping if this immersive experience proves successful, it can be rolled out into other problem areas such as male suicide and county lines. We’re wanting to use the latest technology to solve issues which are causing massive issues in society.”

The People’s Learning Trust is also working with both Everton and Liverpool Clubs to help educate local children on the impact of knife crime.

An Everton FC spokesperson tells The : “Everton, Everton in the Community and The People’s Learning Trust play a vital role within our community.

“In a period when our region and country has been rocked by incidents of knife crime, this programme led by The People’s Learning Trust seeks to not only bring forward the voices of victims’ families, but uses the latest technology to speak directly to young people about the harsh realities of knife crime, while also providing vital information to educate young people on how to behave, what to do and how to potentially save a life in such a situation.”

Leeann said: “Ava was a massive Liverpool FC fan, and to link this project up with Liverpool and Everton is a brilliant idea. Football is the common language of all the kids around here, the perfect way to carry this message.”

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