Out of the Box - The Story of Leroy Smith

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Both Mr Smith and Mr Seymour welcomed the use of their story being used as a training tool for new recruits in The Met. So he has written a book, Out of the Box, and he hopes to speak to community groups and schools about the mistakes he made, and how to avoid repeating them. A former Metropolitan Police officer has teamed up with the man who shot him in 1993 to help youngsters avoid a life of crime. I think it can be resolved easily, there are people in every community who know these youths and who they listen to and respect,” he said. Mr Smith, then 25, was jailed for two years for that escape, 18 years for a firearms offence, and five years for robbery. He was given a 25-year sentence for attempting to murder PC Seymour and 18 years for wounding PC Carroll in the same incident.

We have seven newsletters you can currently sign up for - including a different one for each part of London, as well as an EastEnders one for all the gossip from Albert Square, and a London Underground one to keep you up to date on the latest transport news. As part of this session, new recruits are shown and then discuss a video featuring former Met police Constable James Seymour who was shot by Leroy Smith while on duty in 1994.

Speaking to The Voice, he said: “When they pulled us, I knew I was wanted, and knew I would be going to prison.

He was in hospital for four days after the shooting and then had to keep returning for a good while after as the wound healed. Although most of Leroy’s immediate family and his daily influencers at home were law abiding citizens, he chose a different path, driven by a need for ever more money. By 12 years of age, Leroy had stopped going to school, started using drugs and dabbling in crime. At the age of 14, he was sentenced to a stint in a young offenders institution.He was on the run when the officers – PC Seymour and his colleague PC Simon Carroll – were shot on March 9, 1994. I was given a criminal conviction just for being gay and it ruined my life - a pardon is not enough' Now I must stop here to remind you that prison is a cage. Therefore, the only thing that matters, if you wish to control the whole system, is numbers. Ironically, faith or deep belief or conviction can bring you solitude and peace within, which in itself can be very appealing to anybody in a cage. Things continued in this vein, but slowly more and more brothers, or inmates that were brothers, were coming into the prison. Then around 2005 Sheikh Faisal came to the prison on terrorism charges, but in reality all he had been doing was speaking his mind, based on the facts as he saw it. I met him when he came to Long Lartin and I liked him. He was a Jamaican and very, very clever, with a wide range of political and religious knowledge from all round the world; he spoke Arabic and knew the Quran by heart. He used to get into arguments with other prisoners who were way less enlightened than him – and that’s putting it politely. When they could not win their argument verbally, they would want to resort to violence and on more than a few occasions I had to jump in and stop it and then I would say to people things like ‘If you can’t beat the man with an intellectual argument, then don’t talk to him, but do not turn around and try to use violence because you know that your argument is weak.’ He believes the only reason he survived his time in prison was because of the “mutual respect” that was shown between the prisoners. Leroy Smith is a writer, mentor and motivational public speaker who directs his talks at young people who might be heading down the wrong path in life. He has given talks describing his experiences at City University London, numerous schools, colleges and youth centres around the country.

He did keep tabs on Leroy over the years through a victim’s support officer and this was how James found out about his book. They're all in their own little bubbles and they get their porridge [sent to prison] to learn. They're in a goldfish bowl and they're not realising." Leroy Smith and James Seymour, the police officer he shot in 1993, are now friends (Image: Facundo Arrizabalaga/MyLondon)

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Then you had a lot of other prisoners, mostly white guys or guys who had power up until this point and who could see how they could lose it because of this new influx of prisoners, so they would take every opportunity to cast Muslims in a bad light. From the mere fact that a Muslim prisoner did not need drugs or drink to function inside the prison system and only needed food and exercise in the gym, it was clear from the start that brothers could adapt to anything. Slowly but surely inmates started to convert, some for inner peace, others for their own ends, or to seek personal power. That category of person is only fooling themselves. Brothers used to always come up to me and try to convert me but, because I believe in my heart that God is not a joke, I did not jump on the bandwagon for the sake of it. FORMER pop star Leroy Smith - a member of 1970s chart-toppers Sweet Sensation - has died, aged 56, alone in his flat. I was nervous,” James explained. “[I thought] was I doing the right thing? Did he genuinely want to redeem himself? And was he genuine?”