I was a gang member as a NINE-year-old & survived being stabbed 14 times… now I’ve turned my life around & met the King
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A REFORMED gang member has told how he was pulled into a life of crime at just nine-years-old - before miraculously surviving a brutal attack that came an inch from killing him. Gideon Buabeng, 31, was stabbed 14 times before finally escaping the dark underworld and has since turned his life around, meeting Hollywood star Idris Elba and King Charles.
![[Framed photo of a young boy in a suit.]](https://www.thesun.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2025/01/ac972764-9f51-42d9-a1f3-9ad7039047a4.jpg?strip=all&w=756)
Gideon was slashed with knives as a dozen brutal thugs pummelled him with poles and baseball bats in a horrific attack while he was at university in Leicester. He was stabbed 14 times in the assault including five wounds that plunged five inches deep - one just an inch away from killing him.
![[A young man surrounded by a blurred crowd.]](https://www.thesun.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2025/01/brutal-attack-i-stabbed-14-963695242_3cf142.jpg?strip=all&w=302)
The then-teenager was left fighting for his life in hospital. But Gideon had chosen to study 140 miles away from his home in Croydon to escape the gang life he'd been wrapped up in since the age of nine. He told The Sun: "I remember being so scared. I was panicking, thinking I've done all of that to move away from this lifestyle.
![[King Charles III shaking hands with a young man and woman at an event.]](https://www.thesun.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2025/01/brutal-attack-i-stabbed-14-963695239.jpg?strip=all&w=621)
"But now here I was again. I didn't even know the guys who attacked me, it didn't make any sense.". He spent three-and-a-half weeks in ICU and had to learn how to walk again. After I was attacked people were calling me. They told me they were ready to go. They said 'we have all the machines ready to go, let us know what you want us to do.".
![[Two men standing on steps, one holding a folded jersey.]](https://www.thesun.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2025/01/brutal-attack-i-stabbed-14-963695253.jpg?strip=all&w=720)
In the weeks after the attack, as Gideon slowly recovered - his old gang friends got in touch. They'd heard what happened and wanted to know if he needed them to launch a revenge assault. "I had a choice to make," he said. "People were calling me. After four weeks they told me they were ready to go. They said 'we have all the machines ready to go, let us know what you want us to do.".
![[Man lying in a hospital bed, hooked up to medical equipment.]](https://www.thesun.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2025/01/brutal-attack-i-stabbed-14-963695244.jpg?strip=all&w=450)
