GMB's Alex Beresford pays tribute to cousin Nathan Armstrong, 29, after he was killed in London stabbing attack
Good Morning Britain's weatherman Alex Beresford's cousin has been named as the victim of a brutal London stabbing. Nathan Armstrong, 29, was killed in the early hours of Saturday morning down Gowan Avenue in Fulham, south west London – the same road where Jill Dando was shot dead in 1999. Following the tragic news, Alex paid a heartbreaking tribute to Nathan, writing on Twitter: "Nobody wins, everybody loses!" A friend of Nathan's described him as a "good and big man," to the BBC, adding: "At the age of 29, you don't do silly things like this, knife crimes." A local "hero" was also thanked by Greg Hands, the Conservative MP for Chelsea and Fulham, after giving CPR to Nathan in a bid to save his life, as were a group of women who had stopped to help. Greg wrote on Twitter: "Have thanked the local Fulham man who gave CRP to the victim of the fatal stabbing last night. A hero – and the group of grils from New Zealand (ironically) who helped too. A traumatic experience for all of them, but we thank them."
Alex Beresford's cousin Nathan Armstrong was the victim of a London stabbing
At the beginning of the month, Alex had spoken out about knife crime during a panel debate on GMB on whether or not there should be more jails in the UK. He said: "Prison doesn’t work though. It does not work. I've grown up in some of these communities you guys are talking about. Some of these boys don’t fear prison. If we don't change the environment we won't change anything. This has been happening for years, years, and it's not always in the media."
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Alex also spoke about how he thought knife crime should be tackled, adding: "Policing is one thing, but if you don’t change these boys' environments. All of you guys have benefited from the environments you've grown up in, this work environment, I've benefited from it too. But if you don't show these boys a different environment you won't change anything."
Nathan was killed down Gowan Avenue in Fulham
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The former Dancing on Ice contestant also wrote a passionate feature in The Sun about knife crime prevention following on from his discussion on the television. In it, he said: "As someone who got out of the ghetto - but is still proud to retain a foothold there – I don't think prison works in its current form. It might sound shocking, but prison can be a university for crime, where inmates get three meals a day and grow their networks and learn new tricks." Alex added that it would have been easy for him to go down the path of joining a gang, but was lucky that his father kept him away from the idea of doing so. "Ultimately, I was more scared of him than I was them," he said.
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