‘Death, prison or the loss of your sanity’: A decade of county lines leaves its scars on children

Wednesday 3 December 2025 

A decade after authorities first identified the rise of “county lines” drug networks, many children exploited by the trade are now dead, imprisoned, or sectioned with severe mental health issues brought on by trauma.

Sky News has spoken with parents and former child runners who describe long-term consequences that remain devastating, even as new figures show the crisis is far from slowing.

Police say that in the past 12 months alone, 3,200 vulnerable people — most of them children — were referred to support services, while 1,200 gang members were arrested. Despite these efforts, families say the effects on young victims endure for years.

“Death, prison, or the loss of your sanity”

One survivor, “Lucy,” featured in a 2018 Sky News investigation, was just 13 when her gang sent her from London to Southampton, set her up to be robbed, then stabbed her as punishment. She was forced into debt bondage and made pregnant by a gang member.

Now in her early 20s, Lucy lives in a refuge and has been sectioned with severe mental health challenges.

“My paranoia just overtook me,” she says. “I was constantly on edge, scared they would find me or hurt me again.”

“That’s the cruelty of it all”

Amanda Stephens’ son, Olly, suffered similar exploitation at age 13 after being groomed by a county lines group. Autistic and vulnerable, he was manipulated by peers who he believed were friends.

In January 2021, after warning his parents that some children wanted to stab him, Olly was lured to a field by a 14-year-old girl and murdered by two boys aged 13 and 14.

“We completely lost control of him,” Amanda says. “He thought they were his friends — that’s the cruelty of it all.”

A national problem that has not gone away

The National Crime Agency first reported in 2015 that vulnerable young people were being used to expand gang drug networks into towns and rural areas via dedicated mobile phone “lines.”

The rise of county lines triggered a surge in youth knife crime and led to the Modern Slavery Act being used to recognise child criminal exploitation.

Parents say the grooming is subtle and insidious. One mother, “Laura,” compared her son’s behaviour to being “radicalised.” Another mother, Sarah, said her son was first targeted at age 12 with “gifts” like trainers, bikes, and coats.

“Everything he got came at a price,” she says. “Ten years on, he’s serving a prison sentence, mentally traumatised, and physically scarred.”

Impact retold through art — and warnings from those who lived it

Lucy’s story helped inspire the touring stage production CODE by Justice In Motion, which depicts the grooming and exploitation of children by county lines gangs.

Lead actor and rapper Still Shadey, who grew up in south London, says he saw the consequences firsthand:
“The outcomes are clear — death, prison, or the loss of your sanity.”

Ongoing police efforts

The issue has received less media attention recently, but remains a policing priority. Between July 2024 and July 2025, officers shut down 2,300 deal lines — the highest annual total since the government’s County Lines Programme began in 2019.

Crime and policing minister Sarah Jones condemned the exploitation as “disgusting and cowardly,” vowing relentless action against gangs.

The government has introduced new offences under the Crime and Policing Bill, including “criminal exploitation of children,” carrying a maximum sentence of 10 years, to increase prosecutions and deter gangs from recruiting minors.