TV and sports stars tackle violence against girls

Around 80 boys from eight schools across Merseyside listened to the words of sporting and TV stars in an event aimed at tackling violence against women and girls.

The event, jointly organised between Merseyside Police and the Liverpool Football Club Foundation, featured workshops on healthy relationships, consent, managing anger and peer pressure as well as online behaviour.

Former world boxing champion Tony Bellew, from Toxteth in Liverpool, addressed the group at Anfield Sports and Community Centre and said he wanted to help them discuss a "taboo subject".

He told the BBC: "Everyone makes mistakes, but things that can be drawn upon can be dealt with in the correct way.

"I just feel talk about it now, it's a bit of a taboo subject really but as I said before; you know right from wrong."

Other guests at the event included This City is Ours Star Jack McMullen and series producer Simon Maloney.

Bellew, 43, also drew on his own personal experiences growing up in the city, including getting expelled from school.

"I wish I had people like myself, a little bit older who could come into school and talk to me," he said.

"We didn't have no one really, especially someone like myself who's experienced so many different things in life to just come in and talk to these kids.

"Everyone's going through something. No one's life is perfect. Perfect doesn't even exist.

"Everyone's got something going on in their life; talk, problem share, there's a problem halved.

"I said before, all these mechanisms, the coping mechanisms, help people work through their problems."

One schoolboy attending the event, Yonatan Geremeskel, said he had found the sessions and hearing from successful local stars "amazing".

"It's told us about how to become like this, and if you go along the wrong path there's always a chance to go back," he said.

Faye Smith, safer schools coordinator at Merseyside Police, said: "The work we do with boys is incredibly important, as these conversations help them understand what is and isn't acceptable, particularly around abusive, misogynistic or harmful behaviours."

Emily Spurrell, police and crime commissioner for Merseyside, added: "These early conversations are how we prevent harmful attitudes from taking root and build a culture where women and girls not only feel safer but are safer."

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