SCHOOLCHILDREN are to be shown images of stab wounds in a scheme launched by doctors to crackdown on violent crime.

SCHOOLCHILDREN are to be shown images of stab wounds in a scheme launched by doctors to crackdown on violent crime.

The team of 60 medical professionals - including surgeons from Glasgow - will give up their own time to tour schools spreading the message that enough is enough.

Medics Against Violence aims to raise awareness among 14-year-olds of the impact of violence-related injuries, particularly knife crime.

A hard-hitting film will be the centre of the £80,000 Scottish government funded project which is the brainchild of surgeons Christine Goodall, Mark Devlin and David Koppel.

Dr Goodall, senior lecturer and honorary consultant oral surgeon at Glasgow University Dental School, said: "It's not about blood and gore but it's shocking as it shows there's a fine line between being a perpetrator and a victim.

TIMESFILE:

  • Around 1000 patients a year attend Glasgow Dental Hospital with knife-related facial injuries.
  • City hospitals treat a serious facial injury every six hours.
  • Around 83% of patients with a facial injury were drinking at the time of the injury.
  • £3.5million is spent every year on treating these injuries in the West of Scotland.

"We see how they can ruin lives, not only of the victims, but of their families and friends.

"Scars caused by knives and other weapons run much deeper than what we see on the surface - they imprint on every part of a victim's life, from personal relationships to getting a job, an imprint that will impact on them every single day."

The film follows five people affected by violence including Scott Breslin from Pennilee.

He was left paralysed after being stabbed by a teenage gang in an unprovoked attack aged 16.

The Evening Times revealed how he was found lying in a pool of blood after being stabbed in the neck.

A man recently released from Polmont Young Offenders Institute, a mum whose son was killed in a random attack, a police officer who saw a young man die in the street and Mark Devlin, consultant cleft and maxillofacial surgeon at the Southern General, are also in the 15-minute video.

Mr Devlin, who grew up in Govan, said: "My experience is of treating four of my school friends who were victims of knife crime.

"We came from a similar background but I had a mum and dad who wanted something more for me.

"All the doctors come from different background and the children at the schools will be from different backgrounds but there only one message - that they can make a choice."

At the launch of Medics Against Violence was Health Secretary Nicola Sturgeon, Justice Sec-retary Kenny MacAskill and Violence Reduction Unit boss Detective Chief Superintendent John Carnochan.