‘Bad boy’ Christopher Yarrington, who confesses to having been part of Leominster’s anti-social scene with bouts of drinking and fighting, has put his wild past firmly behind him.
Well-known to police in Leominster due to frequent Friday night skirmishes with officers, and a school career blighted by periods of exclusion, the 19-year-old labourer had appeared to be destined for a future of trouble. But Christopher, who believes his wayward lifestyle might eventually have landed him behind bars, has turned his life around.
Later this year he plans to join an overseas trip to Africa where church workers are helping to improve community life in a Ugandan village.
Impressed at the way he has ‘pulled his life around’, mayor of Leominster, Councillor Peter McCaull, has nominated Christopher for the first grant awarded from the Janet and Peter McCaull Charity.
Set up in support of local youth projects in tribute to the late Mrs McCaull, the charity will be administered by Leominster Town Council’s finance committee. Cllr McCaull, who steps down as mayor next month, plans eventually to bequeath his personal estate to the charity.
This year’s first pay-out includes £250 for Christopher, and £250 for Lucy Morgan, a member of Leominster Priory Church choir, who returns to Uganda this summer having been involved in charity work last year.
“Their separate appeals for a grant didn’t fall into the council’s fund for youth projects, but they both qualified for support under the charity set up after Janet died,” said Cllr McCaull.
He understood that Christopher had been a ‘really wild kid’, and was impressed to learn how he had turned his life around.
“It’s nice when a young lad comes out of a bad patch, and he is a really nice lad who comes from a nice family. You feel you could take Christopher anywhere and he would be an asset, and not a liability,” said Cllr McCaull.
He added that youth problems in Leominster involved only five per cent of young people but that five per cent tended to drag some others in as well. CCTV cameras revealed the ‘same kids’ involved in disorder, but he was delighted to find that Christopher was now ‘a gentleman’.
Christopher plans to join other volunteers from the Freedom Church at Hereford on an important building project.
Using his own skills and experience from the building trade, the former Minster College pupil, who needs to raise £850, will assist in completing a clinic, and construction of a play area. He will also be helping out on the farm with crop production.
Christopher said: “I was going through some trouble in Leominster, drinking and fighting every weekend and getting into trouble with the police. I really think I might have ended up in prison if I’d gone on like that.”
When Luke Snowzell started working for the same Leominster building firm, he persuaded Christopher to attend the Freedom Church at Hereford.
“When he told me to come, I thought, you must be joking,” said Christopher.
“But from then on I thought it was brilliant. I’ve never done anything like this before, and it’s changed everything.”
After years of worry, his mother, Tracey was now ‘very happy’, added Christopher.
“I was excluded from school most of the time and I will be going down to the police station to tell them about the trip to Uganda,” he said.
“It’s all good, this is going to be the trip of a lifetime.”