ITV weather presenter Alex Beresford speaks of family stabbing tragedy
Good Morning Britain weather presenter, Alex Beresford, gave his first interview to the ITV morning show since his cousin was fatally stabbed on Friday night.
Alex Beresford, Good Morning Britain.
“We also buried our uncle yesterday so it’s been a lot of ups and downs. No one would have expected it, especially after I spoke out. You couldn’t make it up. It’s come as a big surprise that it’s happened to Nathaniel…he is 29, not in a gang, he went to a good school, university… He was a big guy. He was like 6’6″, 6’7″, when you spoke to him you were literally looking up. I guess on the outside some people could have been intimidated by him but he wasn’t that person – everyone said he was a big friendly giant. For this to happen to him, everyone was quite shocked. He wasn’t really a fighter, he was someone who would talk his way out of something.” – Alex Beresford
Good Morning Britain weather presenter Alex Beresford has spoken following the fatal stabbing of his cousin Nathaniel on Friday night. The incident comes after Alex joined a GMB debate about knife crime on the ITV morning show earlier this month. Speaking to hosts Piers Morgan and Susanna Reid the ITV weatherman went on to note the irony of the timing.
“It literally can happen to anybody. That’s why I was saying on the show, it is about environment and not just one environment, it’s about changing everything. Poverty, we have not solved that, this is why a lot of people are finding themselves in these situations…something just needs to be done. I can’t always find the words right now…I think this happening only reaffirms what I was saying about the environment and also about prisons and that they are not always a deterrent.”
Alex speaking about the stabbing on GMB earlier today.
On whether bigger prison sentences would be effective Alex noted how ‘there are some people that will be deterred by a bigger sentence but for lots of boys that are committing these crimes, they don’t care.’ he continued his view that ‘if you are prepared to pick up a knife and stab someone, or risk your own life, you are prepared to give your life, it’s not a deterrent.’ Then on the comparison between tougher laws on gun crime, he went on to add that he ‘would argue that guns are not as easy to come by, a knife you could walk into your kitchen and pick it up…that’s where the problem lies.’
“We need to think about the other side of this. This person who has done this to my cousin, he has also ruined his life, the ripple effect goes wider, it affects his family as well and that’d why we need to fix this problem from both sides. That’s why I have said before: ‘Nobody wins, everybody loses in these situations'” – Alex Beresford
Alex also went on to state the issue concerns everyone, not just one section of British society. He told Peirs and Susannah how it ‘is… a very small demographic of boys that this is happening to.’ Adding how ‘here are so many positive role models out there that unfortunately we don’t get to see.’
“I understand why people will look at it and say this is a black problem…it’s not, it’s a problem up and down the UK in lots of different of communities… 99% of my friends are black…they are CEOs and accountants, people that own their own businesses. We are a successful group of brothers that have grown up in similar environments. The key thing is that there is a choice. These boys do have a choice. You can go the other way.” – Alex Beresford
Good Morning Britain airs nationally on ITV Daytime from 6am.
