Dad of murdered Kiyan Prince reveals plan to take charity work to ‘next level’

The father of murdered schoolboy Kiyan Prince has told of his aim to take the charity set up in his son’s name to another level by building ‘schools of excellence’ to help children achieve their dreams.

Today marks 18 years since Kiyan had his dreams of becoming a professional footballer snatched away when he was stabbed to death by a fellow pupil outside their school in Edgware, northwest London.

Since then, his dad Dr Mark Prince OBE, 55, has worked tirelessly to steer young people away from gangs and knife crime through the Kiyan Prince Foundation (KPF), which has now delivered talks and workshops to around 100,000 pupils across the country.

‘Our outcomes are brilliant,’ he told Metro. ‘We’ve got kids who have turned their lives around, come from war-torn countries, started their own businesses.

‘We’ve had kids that have become personal trainers, we’ve had kids that are speaking and going out sharing their lives, they’ve created the model I’m doing, all because the Kiyan Prince Foundation came into their lives.

‘So, we’ve got solid outcomes – but how much more could we produce if we had the resources?’

For nearly two decades now the KPF has been driven solely through Mark’s efforts alone.

He has travelled the country visiting schools, colleges, and prisons, using his experience as a life coach and former champion boxer to guide youths and their families through the same difficulties and trauma that has scarred his own life.

But after securing the backing of investors like Simon Henderson, the head of Eton, Mark is focused on building a safe place they can visit to receive that help instead of waiting for it to find them.

‘I think in people’s minds, because we were always in the papers, doing interviews and getting headlines they’ve had a sense that KPF has been flying when really it’s quite the opposite,’ he reveals.

‘We need the premises, we need the funds, we need the staff, we need people with lived experience who can develop this model.

‘This is what we want the world to know on Kiyan’s 18th anniversary that we want to take it to another level – but we can’t do it without their support.’

Having dreams to living nightmares

Kiyan played for Queens Park Rangers under-16s football team and was described as one of their brightest talents who was tipped for the very top.

He was stabbed to death while trying to stop a fight outside the gates of the London Academy.

Hannad Hasan, then aged 16, was found guilty of murder and remains in prison, where he was recently refused release on parole.

‘It’s really strange because getting the news is the start of the nightmare,’ Mark says of the phone call telling him what had happened. ‘It hasn’t even begun to unravel.

‘So, what you have when you get the news is your own mind running off and creating stories in your own head.

‘The thing that came into my head was how bad is it? Is it all the way to death, or is he injured? And you don’t want to entertain death, so it was my mind was going through a battle to keep calm.’

Getting through hell

Mark left a life of drugs and violence behind him to achieve glory in the boxing ring, with only one defeat in 24 fights.

The loss of his son inflicted a pain like no other and he attributes a heart condition diagnosed since to that grief.

‘You’re just in this space you’ve never experienced before,’ he recalls. ‘You’re making noises you didn’t know were in you to make. I’m getting panic attacks, I’m passing out.

‘It’s like my body can’t handle all of this trauma.’

Though not a religious man in the conventional sense, he admits saying ‘a little prayer’ to save his son’s life.

‘I said that audibly, but I said the next bit quietly because I knew it was too deep for anyone to take in and I didn’t even know where it came from,’ he adds.

‘It was – “but if he does die, help me to accept it”. And that prayer spearheaded the rest of my journey.’

Building the Kiyan Prince Foundation

After Kiyan died, Mark says he struggled with the desire for revenge – an eye for an eye.

But he goes on: ‘I taught my son how to be as a human being and then he dies – do I throw out the rule book?

‘Is it suddenly null and void because somebody’s killed him, and I didn’t figure that in the equation? That means everything you taught your son is a load of BS then, because you’re not living by it.

‘These are the conversations that I was having in my mind that helped me make the right decision.

‘The impact it was having on me was evident in the way I was speaking, in my actions, and the kind of methodology I had to build the Kiyan Prince Foundation came off of all those beliefs.’

The KPF seeks to reduce youth violence by engaging with at risk young people in schools and prisons and using sports and life coaching to develop a ‘champions’ mindset empowering them to make positive decisions and achieve their ambitions.

‘Kids now are more scared of knife crime than ever’

Research carried out by Public First, on behalf of the KPF, revealed that most youngsters in the UK worry they will be threatened by a knife (56%) or mugged in their local area (50%).

‘They are scared,’ Mark says. ‘Parents are scared. What do you get when you have a society full of fear? Fear never produces anything positive.

‘You have to keep going through fear to not let it overcome you. But if fear does overcome you the outcome’s a negative.

‘If I’m fearful going into fights and don’t turn that into positive adrenaline to make me quicker, faster, stronger, then fear overcomes me and then I’m not producing the skills that I’ve been working on for the past few months. Fear has just gripped me and I’m counterproductive.

‘Having fear controlling children, because the cognitive part of their brain hasn’t developed yet it makes sense to them that “Oh I’m scared – what do I need to do? Here, I’ll take this knife. You’ve got one, I’ll take up a knife and defend myself”.

‘That makes sense to a young person. But when you see the stats, you see how many young people are more likely to get stabbed because they’ve got a knife.

‘Plus, as long as you’ve got it, you’re a potential murderer. The potential to murder has now increased because you have got that on you.

‘It’s not the potential to protect yourself that has increased – it’s the potential to kill.’

Creating a school of excellence

Mark’s ultimate goal is to educate young people and create a support system for them.

‘We are trying to address the problem at the core of it, not the symptoms, and then we can start seeing change over a 10-year plan,’ he says.

But to do that, he needs to be able to pilot it. And to do that he needs your support.

Outlining his vision, he says: ‘We will produce somewhere and show it will reduce crime if this place, this support system, this school of excellence is in a borough, is in an area, and there is somewhere families and children can go where before they didn’t feel safe, where they don’t have employment skills, they don’t have emotional intelligent education lessons.

‘Now we’ve got that for you. Now you can get support.’

But where in a city in which knife crime affects almost every single borough would the first building be located?

He adds: ‘I want to be talking about the solution, investors coming on board, businesses, how the government has signed up to this 10-year plan to start changing things and addressing what the Public First research demonstrates – that there is fear in communities, there are not enough places for young people to go, there’s not enough opportunities for young people to have.’

But where in a city in which knife crime affects almost every single borough would the first building be located?

‘It would be great to start where Kiyan was,’ Mark suggests. ‘Because I would get access to the Grahame Park Estate where so much crime, so much drug dealing and so much gang violence is going on.

‘That would be incredible because I would get to change the young lives of those people first and then spread out and impact other lives.’

Kiyan’s legacy

Mark says of his son: ‘It’s like I found out even more about him after his passing than I did when he was alive. I didn’t realise the impact he had on so many people’s lives.

‘It was his kindness, his funniness, his care – all the different situations people were sharing with him, how they got to meet him and him looking out for them, introducing himself to them and him making them feel a part of the group.

‘Even the bad guys in the area had respect for Kiyan.

‘Kiyan never judged people. He would befriend anyone. He would talk to you and be honest with you. If you were doing bad things, he would tell you don’t do it.

‘I think that’s why these guys respected him, because he would just be straight and honest about what he felt was the right thing to do and how to behave.’

He goes on: ‘How did Kiyan become such a force of positive nature and he was 15? Because he cared about people. He didn’t threaten people. He wasn’t unkind to people. He didn’t bully people. He didn’t hurt people emotionally, verbally, none of that.

‘That’s why it’s a phenomenon. That’s why he’s so well-known and that’s why his legacy deserves to be told and I have a duty of care to ensure that Kiyan’s life and the message of his life – that you must find your potential, find your passion, and go out and live it.

‘Every child has potential. Every child has a seed of greatness in him. Kiyan’s story shows that, and it just so happens that my story brings it to life.’

‘Kiyan would be so proud’

Not long before his murder, Kiyan surprised his dad by turning to him and saying: ‘I am so proud of you.’

The comment caught the former prize-fighter off-guard.

‘I asked him “Where did that come from? Why did you say that?”

‘And he said “You were a top fighter. You’ve had an injury that’s ended your career, but you’re still upbeat. You’re still trying to do good”.’

Kiyan was right to feel proud. Two decades on from his unimaginable loss and those profound words still ring true.

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