Fathers in Birmingham pledge to patrol the city streets and make arrests on their own after a teenage boy was fatally stabbed and four women were assaulted

A group of vigilante dads are getting together to ‘police’ the area where teenager Leo Ross was murdered last month.

The men express their disgust with the condition of Hall Green in Birmingham following the tragic killing of 12-year-old Leo Ross, who was fatally stabbed on January 21 and later succumbed to his injuries in the hospital.

They raise concerns about the lack of law enforcement in the area, describing it as lawless and insufficiently policed. They highlight a disturbing fact that the teenager accused of Leo’s murder was also sought in connection with four serious assaults on women in the vicinity.

Organiser Reece Chisholm, 37, said: ‘We won’t be using violence. All we want to do is what the police are not doing.

‘Promises were made to improve policing in this area after Leo’s death. Yet, how can it be that there is a man openly engaging in indecent behavior at the bottom of Chinn Brook Road, terrorizing women without facing consequences,’ they question.

A post about the flasher triggered Mr Chisholm, who describes himself as a reformed criminal who now runs a gardening company, to put out a call for other men in the area to join him on patrols.

‘Calling all men in the hall green area message me please let’s get a team of us and do wot we do best look after the vulnerable people and the children within our area.’

He soon found himself at the head of a Dad’s Army and he is confident they will grow in numbers.

A group of vigilante dads are getting together to ‘police’ the area where 12-year-old Leo Ross was murdered last month, led by father-of-eight Reece Chisholm, 37 (pictured) 

Mr Chisholm, who describes himself as a reformed criminal and now runs a gardening company, put a call out for other men in the area to join him on patrols

 He said: ‘I want this to be done properly. We won’t be racist, we have men of all faiths and colours and I have been in touch with a local councillor to tell him what we intend to do.

‘This team will only escalate and I will push it to get bigger and bigger. No violence will be happening.

‘We will make citizens’ arrests with reasonable force. The police won’t come out so I will put them in my car and take them to the station myself.

‘There will be groups of us at different times and on different days.

‘After 8pm every evening, the elderly people can’t walk the streets – they feel vulnerable.

‘If the elderly know there are a group of lads from the area looking out for them then they will feel safer.

‘We will knock on older people’s doors earlier in the day and introduce ourselves.

12-year-old Leo Ross (pictured) died in hospital after being stabbed in Hall Green, Birmingham, on January 21. A 14-year-old schoolboy was charged with his murder on January 25

Mr Chisholm says that the group of dads ‘will make citizens’ arrests with reasonable force’

‘We will have name badges identifying us, we’ll have body cameras for our own protection, walkie-talkies.’

To illustrate his direct approach, Mr Chisholm, a father of eight children aged between 15 and three, said: ‘I get my kids to liaise with other kids to see if there are any problems at home and they come back and tell me.

‘I was told that one Dad kept hitting his kid so I spoke to him in the playground and I told him.

‘I told him that if it continued, I’d have to report him. 

‘My kids are my princes and princesses. I look after them and then they’ll look after me when I’m old. It’s the way it should be.’

Few who live in Hall Green would describe it as one of Birmingham’s worst neighbourhoods but like the rest of the city, it is beset litter and crime.

Mr Chisholm says he sees, ‘rats as big as beavers’ and helps elderly residents keep their front gardens clear of rubbish.

He also uses his equipment to cut the grass by the memorial to Arthur Labinjo-Hughes, the six year old murdered by his mother and step-father during Lockdown in 2020.

The father-of-eight says he often gets his kids to ‘liaise with other kids to see if there are any problems at home’ 

Schoolboy Leo Ross suffered fatal injuries on a riverside path in broad daylight in the Hall Green area

Last week two teenagers in Hall Green handed themselves in to police after a BMW they were driving was in collision with a Honda and a man in his 50s died.

Local social media rumours suggested that they were ‘doing balloons’ (inhaling laughing gas).

It was also recently ranked in a Joseph Rowntree Foundation report as one of the worst areas in the country for child poverty – with 55 per cent of children affected.

Mr Chisholm said: ‘When I was a kid, we had a community centre where we’d all play pool and football out the back.

‘We had Solihull Lodge, another centre for kids. These places are derelict now.

‘Things are worse. We need community centres to help us police the kids and residential schools for disabled children so parents get a break.

‘Hall Green is not the worst place in Birmingham but it is going that way. We don’t want it getting like Sparkhill, Sparkbrook or Handsworth.

‘We have to protect the vulnerable people in our area.’

Leo, a pupil at the Christ Church, Church of England Secondary Academy in Yardley Wood, was believed to have been making his way home from school when he was fatally stabbed

Mr Chisholm, a self-proclaimed ‘reformed criminal said: ‘There will be groups of us at different times and on different days’

 One of those locals Reece and his team would like to protect is Sandra, not her real name.

The 40-year-old mother-of-three was left facially scarred for life by her ex-partner who was given five years in jail.

Now, he’s out and continues to pose a threat to women and children.

Mr Chisholm said: ‘I had a knock on the door from the police asking questions because he has a new partner now who has a daughter who keeps running away from home.

‘This little girl, who’s 11, went into the local shop and told them she didn’t want to go home because her mum’s partner keeps coming into her room and touching me.

‘Her grandma says he has been taking her to drug dens.

‘He’s a known predator. He was caught with a 13-year-old girl in his car only recently.

 ‘I have been reporting that man for 14 years now. He’s ruined my face, he’s targeting little girls and he’s still out there.

‘The police and social services know everything but they don’t do anything. Apparently he’s got a tag on his foot to do with alcohol. It’s a joke.’

Mr Chisholm’s group of vigilante dads say the Hall Green area has become lawless and under-policed. The ringleader said he had previously been involved with a pedophile hunting group called Innocence Matters

Leo Ross was found suffering fatal stab wounds near Scribers Lane at around 3.40pm on January 21

Sandra was also allegedly groomed by an older Asian man when she was 13 and he was 22. She ended up having two children by him.

Now she has been re-homed for her own protection but has ended up living in a new nightmare.

Mr Chisholm added: ‘The neighbour claims to be a single woman living with two disabled, non-verbal daughters but I have videos proving it’s a scam.

‘It’s a family with four kids and the grown up daughters have said disgusting things to my daughter when she’s in the garden.

‘They wanted her to take her swimming costume off. My daughter keeps repeating what they said.

‘When I said something to their mum, she called me a white slag.

‘They vandalised a memorial I had in my garden for my grandson but the police said it was only worth £800 so it didn’t class as criminal damage.

‘They have put cameras on their house looking into my garden but they seem to be untouchable. We are nervous wrecks.’

Mr Chisholm said he had previously been involved with a pedophile hunting group called Innocence Matters.

‘We caught four or five and the police did what they had to do but only one got a prison sentence because he’d done it five times before.’

He added: ‘Compared to when I was growing up there are a lot more thefts happening. The police policed the streets better in the 90s and noughties than they do now.

‘Even though they have more technology now, there is just less of them.

‘You get a man who walks in a pub and asks for the till, commits a low grade robbery and he’ll get four and a half years and yet you get a man who nonces and rapes and will get a suspended sentence.

‘Things have got to change. I am not against anyone, I’m here to help everyone.’