Inside the UK metropolis the place locals are scared to go away their houses

Four years ago, trepid teenager Zabihollah Jaji arrived in Britain to begin a new safer life away from his home in war torn Afghanistan.

He welcomed the opportunity of starting afresh with his family until destiny led them to Coventry – a West Midlands city he confesses ‘I hate!’

The 18-year-old student and worker at his father’s thriving street supermarket said: ‘We are grateful for a new beginning but feel sad it is in Coventry. There is too much crime, lots of threatening gangs and fights everywhere.

‘The UK is safer than Afghanistan, of course, but where we live and work feels very unsafe at times. It is scary. 

 ‘I like the UK but I don’t like Coventry. I hate it!’

Mr Jaji lives in the notorious Hillfields area of the city, he aid: ‘We’re lucky we have a nice home and a big shop to work in but the crime does spoil it, and things have got worse since we moved here four years ago. There is so much violence.’

Many asylum seekers, struggling families and vulnerable residents live in the community a short distance from the city centre.

It also houses a rehab centre for people addicted to drugs and alcohol. 

According to figures published last year by statisticians Numbeo, the city ranked only second in Europe for spiralling crime rates – beating Italia mafia capital Naples, The Sun reports. 

More recently, terrifying CCTV footage of eight brazen youths brandishing knives as they hunted a 19-year-old boy in the city centre was released by police.  

Last October, the violent thugs launched their assault on their victim, leaving him with several stab wounds. 

Thanks to action taken by members of the public, the boy survived, however the motive behind the ‘savage’ assault is unknown, CoventryLive reports.

The eight attackers were handed a combined jail sentence of over 75 years at Warwick Crown Court.

Ex-gang member Anton Noble told MailOnline that crime is ‘much worse’ than when he was swept up in turf wars from the age of 13 until 21.

Mr Noble, who has since escaped the gang violence, said: ‘Coventry as a city when I was younger had more unity even if it was bad or good. A lot of people used to be together and the community used to look after each other.

‘There was a lot of crime in Coventry but a lot of things didn’t get reported. A lot of the gang members used to be like the police. So a lot of the gang members used to be the ones that would sort it out so the police didn’t have to come.

‘Things have changed now, the gangs have a divided communities and made the communities scared and they can’t even speak out when something goes wrong anymore.

‘Now, neighbours don’t look out for each other now. If their house gets smashed, they don’t want to say anything because they are too scared of the consequences if they open the mouth to the police.

The 33-year-old added: ‘Coventry has got to a point now where the young ones have got a very big chip on their shoulder that they can’t carry because of what the older generation has put on them, which they have to fulfil.

‘They are doing serious crimes where they end up dead, going to jail for life or having a very mental breakdown in their early 20s.

‘The higher crime rate in Coventry has become a normal part of society – it’s a thing that’s everyday life. People just say “its just Coventry, it’s just kids”. It ain’t. It’s not normal But people are conforming to it like it is normal.’

Mr Noble, who now runs the Guiding Young Minds (GYM) charity for children, added: ‘It’s much worse now. There’s no morals now. There ain’t no respect, morals or age or who it could be. If a gang has issues now, they will go to the kid’s mothers house and smash the windows, burn it don’t, run a car into it.

‘In our day, you would never bring it to your mum’s house or hit your mum or stab your mum. We would never do that, there were boundaries and rules on the street. it’s a moral code, values, these kids have taken on wrong values.

‘These kids run riot with no emotions, just doing what they are doing. This stems from reinforcement on social media, what they are seeing and hearing.

‘Hillfields, Wood End, all those areas a lot of things happen. It’s very multicultural now, but a lot of things do happen. A lot happen in situations where understandings go wrong.’

When MailOnline visited Hillfields, charity CrimeStoppers had attached a notice high on a lamp post urging locals to contact them: ‘Speak up about crime. If you have crime information you can stay 100% anonymous.’

Underneath the public plea to help make ‘Our Hillfields’ better and safer, a bunch of flowers wrapped in cellophane has been tied – presumably in memory of a life sadly lost.

Mr Jaji, keeping busy in Saad Supermarket, said the way to combat the crime was to try and ignore it.

The teenager, who is planning to study English and Maths GCSE’s at a nearby college this term, said: ‘I try and forget the horrible things going on around me but it is not easy.’

He has witnessed violence in the streets but thankfully has not become a victim.

Just down the road in King William Street, mobile phone shop boss Omar Ali told how he has been targeted by thieves at least four times in recent years with ‘police doing absolutely nothing.’

He believes that gamblers frequenting the betting shop Paddy Power next door to his Zak Repair business are ‘causing many of the problems.’

Mr Ali, 40, from Kurdistan, who has lived in the UK for 22 years, the past 15 years in Coventry, said: ’They lose all their money then start fighting in the street.

’The place is full of drug people and gangs – you would only know they are operating here if you live or work here. They are very menacing.

‘My shop has been robbed four times and now I have a big safe, three shutters and security windows.

‘It used to be a very good area with schools and a city college but it has gone downhill over the years. It is absolutely awful.’

He said as well as crime there were problems with grime, saying: ’There are often piles of rubbish in the road outside and when I email the council to complain you never hear back.

’They do nothing, like the police do absolutely nothing when my shop has been broken into.’

He believes that gamblers frequenting the betting shop Paddy Power next door to his Zak Repair business are ‘causing many of the problems.’

Another shop owner, who has run a grocery store for 36 years, said: ’The place is a s*** hole.

’There are too many gangs.’

The man, who declined to be named, added: ’There’s fighting and stabbings, crime is sky high and sometimes I wonder why I’ve stayed here for so long.’

A young Slovakian female, one of his assistants, said: ‘It’s not a very nice place and I don’t feel safe walking along the streets.’

Her sentiments were echoed by a middle-aged woman, saying: ’Its a very run down place with knife and gun crime, lots of druggies and hookers.

‘I’d never come out at night, it’s bad enough in the daytime.

‘You rarely see a cop around so drug dealing, prostitution and thuggery happens blatantly.’

Jobless Polish chef Richard Kawa admitted: ‘Life can be brutal here and at times it is very dangerous. I’ve been attacked on the streets here and I never feel safe.’

The 57-year-old, who lives alone in a modest second floor council flat just off the noisy square which is partly cordoned off for extensive roadworks, said: ‘I live here because I have no choice.’

Polish Artur, a former warehouse worker who now survives on state benefits, said: ’The streets are full of criminals and working girls and you try to ignore it.

‘I have a small council flat here – it’s a home so I am lucky.’

The single man, 56, who chose not to give his full name, has lived in the country for 12 years, said: ’There must be many better places than Coventry.’

When our team visited the multi-cultural community in bleak, litter-strewn Hillfields some people approached couldn’t speak a word of English.

A Syrian mum and her children had just arrived two days previously and an attempt at conversation had to be translated to her by her eldest daughter.

They were alarmed to hear that crime was rife in the neighbourhood.

A man out fishing in a pond at the local park described Coventry as ’toxic,’ stating: ’There’s too much drug dealing, gang culture, robberies and street violence.

’The authorities had pledged to stamp it out but they’ve not done a very good job and the gangs are getting worse.’

The man, 53, who didn’t want to be named, said that despite the crime he felt ‘relatively safe.’

He said: ‘I’ve been a victim in the past while living in other places. I’ve been stabbed and attacked and have the scars to prove it.’

The man, out with his registered XL Bully puppy Bud, and who is living in a nearby Salvation Army hostel, said: ‘Anything can happen in any place.’

Another shopkeeper, who wished to remain anonymous, said evenings and weekend often got ‘very rowdy, crowded and dangerous.’

He said: ‘I have witnessed people falling over and others having fights. We try to stop them and make them leave, but they don’t listen and when the police arrive, it makes the situation worse.’

Marley Severs, 23, who has always lived in Hillfields, has seen a lot of crime in the area but tried to not let it affect her.

She said: ‘I have seen people get mugged, cars being stolen, people running out of shops who have stolen things.

‘A lot of negative things happen, but I don’t let it affect me. My parents always told me to never go out at night and avoid certain areas, so I have never encountered anything personally which I am glad about.’

Youth worker Ash Boon said he had ‘mixed feeling’ about the area but he feels it has improved.

He said; ’There has been a lot of scaremongering. Yes there are some crime issues but on a positive there are lots of activities for kids and opportunities.

’The kids I help, aged 13-18, are doing OK.’

Since Coventry was rated the second worst in Europe for crime levels in 2022 – with a total of 5,715 offences recorded in the area including 1,954 of sexual nature – police vowed a major clampdown.

A young Coventry man who had moved away from the city to ‘escape a gang lifestyle’ was brutally murdered by a mob behaving ‘like lions on prey,’ Nottingham Crown Court was told.

Terrified Bailey Atkinson, 21, who was ambushed and repeatedly attacked with a 24-cm knife, mumbled ‘I am going to die, tell my mum I love her’ as he bled to death following the horror in Walsall, West Midlands, in January 2023.

A total of seven killers were locked up for life in May.

In August a Coventry man was jailed for his role in a major drugs gang that flooded millions of pounds worth of cocaine into the West Midlands from London and Bedfordshire.

Driver Martin Brown, 40, was caught red-handed with 130kg of drugs on the M6 in November 2022.

Drugs found inside the van were in green refuse sacks, and the blocks themselves were stamped with the Latin phrase ‘Alea Iacta Est’ meaning ‘the die is cast.’

A police chief said ‘really advanced’ partnership work was having a significant impact on gang violence in the city.

West Midlands Police Chief Inspector Daryl Lyon said: ‘Our gang violence compared to 12 months ago is much reduced.’

He added: ‘We still have a couple of issues every now and then but our gang disputes in the city are much reduced to where it was. We’ve done really good partnership working so I think we had more gang injunctions in Coventry than anywhere else.’

Speaking to CoventryLive last summer he said: ‘One of the sergeants responsible got a Queen’s Policing Medal for his work on that so we’ve just got a really effective gangs team. They are really proactive and as soon as any intelligence drops they’re straight on it.’

A £2million project called Community Initiative to Reduce Violence (CIRV), which uses a unique multi-agency approach, has been launched to disrupt gang violence and help those involved in gangs to live a life free of crime.

Chief Inspector Lyon continued: ‘We’re really good at recovering firearms and I think the long-term response to the gang issues in Coventry, which will include CIRV, shows we’ve just got a really good response across the partnership.

‘We hold ourselves to the highest standards and we are now seeing the benefits of that.’

A spokesperson from West Midlands Police said: ‘We regularly carry out targeted patrols in Hillfields aimed at tackling retail crime and serious youth violence.

‘The neighbourhood team also uses these patrols as an opportunity to engage with the community to understand their concerns and gather intelligence.

‘In recent weeks we have secured convictions against a number of known serial offenders in Coventry, securing custodial sentences and Criminal Behaviour Orders against them.

‘These orders are especially useful as they allow us to take action earlier against repeat offenders who breach the restrictions the order places on their movement and activities.

‘We investigate all crimes reported to us and look at patterns of behaviour to build a picture of who is committing crimes and where they are committing them.

‘Using the information we receive from the public and partners, we can more effectively deploy our officers in Hillfields to provide a visible policing presence.

‘As always, anyone concerned about crime and anti-social behaviour in their area can contact us via 101 or Live Chat, or sign up for our WM Now messaging system.