Stabbed gangsters would rather go to veterinarians for treatment than a hospital to avoid police and “repercussions” from other gang members, according to a former criminal.

Speaking on LBC on Monday, former gang member Simon said that he had sought medical help from a veterinarian after being stabbed because doctors are obliged to contact police over gun or knife crime incidents.

“I’ve been stabbed seven times [on seven different occasions],” Simon told radio host Nick Ferrari.

For four of those times, Simon did not go to a hospital and instead went to “people who have a medical background, like a vet”.

On one occasion, the former criminal admitted that he had to go to the hospital because he had lost five pints of blood at the scene and needed to have “42 staples across [his] back”.

“As soon as you go to the hospital, the police get involved. You don’t want to be on the police’s radar.

“If people find out the police are involved, there would obviously be repercussions,” he said, alluding to gangs punishing their injured members who had gone to a hospital and spoken to police.

“Next time, you could be shot,” he added.

The revelation, which echoed similar reporting by the BBC last year, exposes that the true scale of knife crime-related injuries may be unknown.

The mother of slain graduate and charity worker Abraham Badru believes her son was killed in revenge for testifying in court against youths he had stopped raping a 14-year-old girl over a decade ago.

The 26-year-old graduate and charity worker, who was gunned down outside his London home in late March, was just 14 years old when he intervened to help the girl who was being gang-raped by up to 15 boys in a stairwell in Labour-controlled Hackney.

Badru had to move to Bristol for his safety but had recently returned to London under a new identity.

His mother Ronke claims that the murder of her son “was connected” to the case and police are treating it as an “active line of enquiry”.

Community workers in Hackney also believe there could be a connection with one saying: “They have a code. Snitching is snitching.”

Murder Surges 44 Per Cent in Khan’s London Amidst ‘Troubling’ Rise in Serious Crime https://t.co/lM2ewca1Z5 — Breitbart London (@BreitbartLondon) May 20, 2018

“They are like a society within a society, with their own rules.”

“This is the process, the protocol now – revenge,” they added.

Last month, official statistics revealed that there has been a 22 per cent surge in knife crime across the country with incidences “disproportionately concentrated in London” and other cities.

Under the leadership of Labour’s Mayor Sadiq Khan, homicides in London rose by 27.1 per cent – youth homicide jumping by 70 per cent – and serious youth violence was up 19 per cent.

There have been more than 60 people killed in violent crime in the capital this year, more than half of which as a result of knife crime.

The most recent fatalities occurred Monday when a man was stabbed in Islington in the early evening, and 44-year-old Manimaran Selliah was charged with the murder of 28-year-old Arunesh Thangarajah who was stabbed to death in Mitcham, South London on Sunday.

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