Benefits Street star White Dee relives terrifying knife attack and how she was ‘stitched up’ by hit show
BENEFITS Street’s Dee Kelly has revealed how a knife-wielding attacker broke into her home and threatened her in her bedroom.
The petrified mum of two, who appeared in the hit Channel 4 documentary that aired ten years ago, told how she and her family were subjected to a “campaign of terror” by an ex-boyfriend of her daughter, and said: “I thought we’d be killed. It was a living nightmare.”
The 52-year-old, known as White Dee in the show, said Luke Shervington, 26, assaulted her daughter Caitlin then broke into her home to threaten the family with a knife.
He eventually fled, but days later he tried to get in again and this time police found him hiding yards away with a 21in knife in his bag.
Shervington was given a 23-week suspended sentence for possessing an offensive weapon and for common assault.
Dee branded the punishment “an insult” and said it leaves them looking over their shoulders all the time.
She told The Sun: “I thought being on Benefits Street was hard but it was nothing compared to what we’ve been through.
“When I saw that man standing there with a knife in the doorway of my bedroom, my blood went cold.
“I honestly thought that could have been it.
“Knowing that someone is willing to come at you with a knife in your own home was petrifying.
“The whole thing has left my family traumatised and scarred for life.”
Driven by her ordeal, Dee has founded a charity to combat knife crime and youth violence.
Shock of my life
She said: “As a victim of knife crime I knew something needed to be done.
“We get out and try to encourage kids away from falling into a life where using knives is acceptable.”
In an exclusive interview marking a decade since Benefits Street hit our screens, she told of the terror throughout her five-year knife crime ordeal.
Dee also revealed that she believes the show’s production company “stitched up” her and neighbours on the show.
She claims they thought it was a documentary about community spirit during the 18 months of filming and were only told about the series title a couple of weeks before it aired.
Dee said: “It stuffed us.
“If I could turn the clock back I’d go back to the pre-Benefits Street days.”
Benefits Street gained a cult following in January 2014 highlighting the lives of residents on quiet James Turner Street in Birmingham as they battled against life’s struggles and helped each other out.
It was watched by around five million viewers a night and even sparked debate in Parliament about social division and the benefits system.
Dee was the street’s matriarch, bringing in neighbours for dinners, birthdays and offering advice.
Other regulars included Samora Roberts, known as Black Dee, who was jailed for seven years in January 2016 for possessing live ammunition and crack cocaine with intent to supply, as well as James “Fungi” Clarke, who died in 2019, reportedly from a heart attack triggered by a drug overdose.
Dee said: “We were a pretty close-knit unit before the cameras arrived.
“It was like a big family.
“When the cameras came it was the beginning of the end.
“No one who was on the show now lives there.
“People wanted to get away.
“I certainly did.
“I am very angry about how we were misled by the production company who made the show.
“We trusted them.
“We were led to believe it was all about community spirit, nothing about ‘Benefits Britain’.
“We let the crew into our homes over 18 months and they became our friends.
“They came to parties, saw us dealing with the highs and lows of life and got to know us.
“We got an email out of the blue saying the show would be airing on Channel 4 and that it would be called Benefits Street.
“My heart sank.
“We’d been stuffed.
“It ruined the street.”
Dee left James Turner Street more than five years ago and is no longer in touch with anyone from the show.
After the series she embarked on the beginnings of a TV career, appearing on shows such as Loose Women and This Morning.
But her life was turned upside down in 2017, after her daughter Caitlin, then 19, began a relationship with Shervington.
Dee said: “He was having a tough time, I even found out he was sleeping in bus stops.
“So I got him some accommodation to get him straight.
“Caitlin then started seeing him.
“She’d known him a while and he was friends with her friends so I wasn’t too worried.
“I just thought he needed a break.”
But in October that year Dee got “the shock of my life” when Caitlin called her mum in hysterics.
She claims Shervington had locked her in his room and, when Caitlin told him she wanted to break up with him, flew into a rage and pushed her into a wall, hurting her back.
She eventually got free.
Dee said: “When she told me I went into protective mum mode.
“I immediately called the police.
“They said they would look into it and get back to us.
“But by the time we went to bed, with my daughter back home that night, no one had.”
The next morning, a horror was about to unfurl.
Dee said: “I woke up about 7.45am and went downstairs.
“I immediately noticed that a bin in our garden had fire and smoke coming out of it and our back gate and back door had been tampered with.
“I went upstairs to tell my partner Mark what I’d seen.
“Just then I heard Caitlin scream.
“She yelled, ‘Mum, mum, he’s in the house. He’s got a knife.’
“I turned round and there was Luke, standing in the bedroom doorway with a knife in his hand.
“He was agitated and yelling, ‘Who called the police?’.
“I didn’t know what he was going to do so I just thought I’d best just tell it straight.
“I said, ‘I did, you put your hands on my daughter’.
“He was furious and ranting.
“I couldn’t stop looking at the blade.
“We tried to talk to him but he was agitated.
“Thankfully, Caitlin had called 999.
“But before the police could get there, Luke had a moment of clarity and ran out of the house.”
Moments later around 15 cops swooped on the property.
They searched for Shervington and a warrant was issued for his arrest.
But days later, in October 2017, Shervington was back at their house.
Dee said: “We were at the pub having dinner when we got a message from a neighbour saying they had seen Luke at our house trying to get in.
‘Constantly on edge’
“We went back and on the way got the police to join us.
“They looked all over the property and eventually found him in a nearby alleyway and nicked him.”
Police arrested him and found a 21in blade in his bag.
Dee said: “When I heard about the knife, I was terrified.
“What was he going to do to us with that?”
For the next five years Dee and her family lived in fear as court delays and Shervington being re-arrested held up his sentencing.
During that time Dee said her family were “constantly on edge”.
She said: “My daughter didn’t want to leave the house alone and was always looking over her shoulder.
“She felt like she was being stalked.
“We also found that someone had been logging into our wifi at home and always suspected someone was watching us.”
When Shervington’s case finally got to Birmingham Crown Court, in September 2022, he was given a 23-week sentence, suspended for 12-months, after pleading guilty to two counts of common assault and possession of a dangerous weapon.
He was given a restraining order, 80 hours of community service and made to attend an anger management programme.
Dee firmly believes the sentence was not strong enough.
She said: “I was fuming.
“Everything he put us through should have led to a custodial sentence.
“It was the hardest thing I’d ever experienced in my life.
“But we have to move on.”
Now, inspired by her experience, Dee has founded Birmingham Says No, a group which helps people in society who “need a hand”, including those involved in knife crime.
She said: “I realised I really wanted to do something, so that’s what I’ve done with the charity.
“We take kids on days out.
“We go bowling, go to activity parks and stuff like that, because there is nowhere for them to go.
“We hold dance competitions, all things kids want to do.
“We offer them a different way of life.
“We also offer free counselling for kids and are going around giving free bleed-control training.
“The kids on the front line and who witness knife crime are the first responders.
“We are teaching them what to do if they see someone stabbed and suffer a catastrophic bleed.”
Dee added: “I wouldn’t wish what happened to me and my family on anyone, so anything I can do to help others stay away from knives, I wll do it.”
Last night Love Productions, which made Benefits Street, insisted: “Dee viewed all the episodes she was featured in, prior to transmission, and thought that they were a fair and accurate account of her life on James Turner Street.”
– To learn more about the charity, search BirminghamSaysNo on Instagram.
Fate of series cast
BLACK DEE: Samora Roberts, 42, was jailed for seven years in 2016 for possessing live ammunition and crack cocaine with intent to supply.
She was originally arrested in June 2013 when 38-calibre Smith & Wesson bullets were found in a shoe under a laundry basket at her home.
SMOGGY “50p MAN”: The door-to-door salesman, real name Stephen Smith, 47, sold household wares to the residents.
Millionaire Charlie Mullins offered him a deal to open a discount store but they fell out and it never happened.
SHERRELL DILLION: Known as SB.
Seen on the show trying to launch her modelling career while being a single mum – and she managed it.
Sherrell, 36, has modelled all over the world and even appeared in a Big Narstie music video.
JAMES “FUNGI” CLARKE: Ex-crack cocaine addict moved to Cardiff to escape attention after the show. While still battling booze and drug addictions, a fan paid £12,000 for him to go to rehab.
Died of a heart attack in 2019 aged 50 at a house for recovering addicts in Birmingham.
LEE NUTLEY: Found dead by an ambulance crew in October 2016 at a home in Stockton where the second series of the show was filmed.
He had suffered health issues in the years leading up to his death, including heroin addiction and epilepsy, but was trying to get his life back together.
MARK THOMAS and BECKY HOWE: Mark, 30, had never held down a full-time job and got into trouble after bragging about fiddling his benefits.
A month after filming finished he got a job as a labourer and he and partner Becky, also 30, stopped claiming.
The couple and their young children moved away after the show aired, but did not share their new address with people from the TV street.
In 2019 neighbour Anna Korzen said: “They seemed to enjoy the attention at first but I think it got too much for them.
“They left six months ago but didn’t say where to.”
