About the founder
As the founder of SEETE I have very high expectations, ambitions, aims and objectives. For 30 years, between 1992 and 2022, my life was shaped by serious criminal activity. I received three long-term prison sentences for offences involving weapons, violence, and drug supply, and spent 18 of those years in custody. I take full responsibility for the harm caused during that period. Those years also gave me something few systems can teach, an unfiltered understanding of why people offend, why they disengage, and what actually helps people change. During my final sentence (2017–2022), something fundamentally shifted. For the first time, I went against the “steet cred norm”. After being approached by an officer to use my leadership influence positively. I stopped seeing the world as “us (prisoners) versus them (prison officers)” and chose to engage with a system I had long believed was designed for people like me to fail. That change began with mutual respect shown by the prison officer who treated me as a human being first. I accepted an invitation to work alongside staff, breaking long-standing prisoner norms and discovered that collaboration, trust, and accountability are the real foundations of rehabilitation.
That decision led to me working closely with this particular custodial manager and other prison governors who were genuinely committed to reducing reoffending. I was entrusted with multiple leadership and mentoring roles, including Reducing Reoffending Ambassador, Listener Coordinator (Samaritan trained), Equalities Coordinator, and ISFL Mentor on the Incentive Substance Free Living Unit, one of the first and most successful units of its kind in the country. I helped shape its regime, mentor others, and contribute to safer, more supportive prison environments built on responsibility, shared ownership with the ethos of creating an Enabling Environment. In 2019, I was selected from over 1,200 prisoners to meet one-to-one with the then Prime Minister during his visit to HMP Leeds. That conversation reinforced my commitment to take what I had learned and turn it into meaningful action beyond prison walls. SEETE was created because I have lived both sides of the problem. I understand the damage caused by crime and I understand the conditions required for real, lasting change. SEETE is built on lived experience, evidence-led practice, and collaboration. Our mission is to reduce reoffending by empowering individuals, strengthening communities, and working alongside statutory and voluntary partners to create systems that support accountability, dignity, and long-term transformation. I am committed to using my experience not only as a story of the past, but as a tool for impact, helping others break cycles, rebuild trust, and create futures that benefit both individuals and society as a whole.
My life after prison
Following my release in 2022, I was employed for nearly three years as an Education Inclusion Mentor by St Giles Trust, working within the Leeds WEST AIP and SAFER Task Force.
My work involved supporting young people across:
• 7 mainstream Secondary Schools
• 3 Alternative Provisions
Working directly with Year 7–10 pupils who had:
• High exclusion rates
• Poor school attendance
• Identified involvement in criminal or risky behaviours within school and their communities I did 1to1 and group sessions with my mentee’s, touching on the topics such as County Lines, Grooming, Exploitation, Carrying Weapons, Drug Supply, Gangs and the negative affect they all have on our community. The main goal was to give these young people the tools and the information to realise the consequences and the dangers of criminal activities. I was later invited to return to HMP Leeds, delivering talks about my journey from crime to rehabilitation. I also went on to write five accredited offender and victim awareness courses, drawing directly on lived experience, reflection, and accountability.
After leaving this role at St Giles, I joined a newly formed organisation, On The Verge, where I became Head of Reducing Re-Offending Services. In this leadership position, my main focus has been on:
• Designing and delivering services that challenge offender mindsets
• Reducing re-offending through lived-experience-led practice
• Training and supporting frontline staff
• Improving relationships between staff and people in custody
• Advocating for Enabling Environments within prisons
• Using his experience of mentoring & running the HMP Leeds ISFL unit between 2019 to
2021to improve and set up other ISFL units across the prison state.
I strongly believe that Enabling Environments can improve safety, decency, trust, and culture, and play a vital role in changing mindsets on both sides, prisoners and staff, leading to better long-term outcomes and reduced re-offending. Having lived through the criminal justice system myself, I understand first-hand the challenges, barriers, and missed opportunities that many individuals face. I can definitely see a link to crime, trauma and some of the social indicators highlighted over the decades that can push young people towards criminal gangs and crime.
I have created services I believe can encourage individuals to look at the person in mirror whilst helping prisons and other sectors to use relevant lived experiences as a tool for change. My aim is to mentor, train, and educate others by sharing real-life insight, practical skills, and guidance that encourages, cultural change, better decision-making, personal responsibility, and hope. I believe that when people feel understood, trusted, respected and supported, regardless of their past, they are far more likely to change direction and make positive choices. I also believe the criminal justice system can reduce re-offending through enabling offenders through empowerment. The most effective way to enable a person to live crime-free is to meet their core human needs while building capability, belonging, and accountability. Crime is rarely a simple moral failure; it is more often the result of unmet needs, limited choices, and broken connections. Through SEETE, we aim to change criminal mind-set, help reduce reoffending and make our communities a safer place to live.