County lines: Selby author’s children’s books warn of drug gang dangers

A North Yorkshire author has been using storytelling in schools to warn children about the dangers of being groomed by county lines drug gangs.

Christina Gabbitas, of Selby, wrote two books about county lines after she was approached by two of Yorkshire’s police and crime commissioners.

Her research involved speaking with a former gang member and the police.

She said: “I’ve seen children as young as nine years old involved in a county lines, it’s just horrific.”

County lines is the term used to describe drug-dealing networks which often exploit children or vulnerable people.

Ms Gabbitas, 56, is the founder of the Children Literature Festivals charity and was awarded a Prime Minister’s Points of Light Award in 2023 for her work making a “positive change” to communities.

She told BBC Radio York she wrote her first book No More Knives or County Lines – which tells the story of a group of friends caught up and groomed into county lines operations – in 2019, after she was contacted by the Humberside police and crime commissioner.

Its sequel, Trapped In County Lines, was published in 2021 after she was approached by the North Yorkshire commissioner.

Ms Gabbitas said the comic strip-style books, which are targeted at children from the age of 10 upwards, helped them understand what it meant to be groomed by criminals.

Since writing the books Ms Gabbitas has visited hundreds of schools, talking to primary and secondary-school pupils about the risks associated with getting involved in drug dealing.

“The more we can get people talking about it the better,” she said.

“County lines gangs trap families and children in every area, not just areas of depravation, and once they’re in it they can’t get out.”

Ms Gabbitas added: “We don’t want to go into little village primary schools and talk about drug dealing, but we have to empower children, give them a voice so they are not isolated.”

She said she believed in early intervention and educating around the subject.

“When I go into schools I’m opening up a conversation which carries on after I leave,” she added.