- Deirdre Kelly says a vengeful ex-boyfriend of her daughter’s threatened her
- Luke Shervington returned to her house days later and was arrested by police
- She claims Benefits Street producers ‘stitched up’ the people on the show
Benefits Street’s White Dee says she wishes she had never appeared on the landmark documentary – as she detailed how a knife-wielding attacker broke into her house and threatened her with a knife.
The 52-year-old, real name Deirdre Kelly, said she and her family were subjected to a ‘campaign of terror’ by her daughter Caitlin’s ex-boyfriend Luke Shervington.
Shervington, now 26, attacked Caitlin in October 2017 before turning up at her mother’s house and before entering the home with a knife.
Ms Kelly, looking back on her time on the Channel 4 documentary set on a Birmingham street, said the show’s producers had ‘stitched up’ the community, and claimed they only learned of the title weeks before it aired.
In a new interview following Shervington’s conviction for common assault and possession of a knife, she said she would not appear on the programme knowing now that her and her neighbours’ lives would be depicted as ‘poverty porn’.
Deirdre Kelly, AKA ‘White Dee’, as she appeared on Benefits Street alongside daughter Caitlin
She went on to appear on Celebrity Big Brother, for which she was paid a repored £50,000
White Dee walking along James Turner Street, the setting of controversial Channel 4 documentary Benefits Street
She told the paper of Shervington’s attack: ‘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?”.
He fled before police arrived, sparking a manhunt that ended days later when Shervington appeared at the property again; police arrested him and found a 21inch blade in his bad.
She added: ‘My daughter didn’t want to leave the house alone and was always looking over her shoulder. She felt like she was being stalked.’
When his case came to court in September 2022, he was given a 23-week sentence, suspended for a year, after pleading guilty to common assault and possession of a dangerous weapon.
He was also given a restraining order, community service and a requirement to attend an anger management programme – a sentence Ms Kelly could not understand.
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.’
Ms Kelly, drawing on her own experience as well as those of her community, has founded Birmingham Says No, an anti-youth violence group that aims to discourage young people from getting involved in crime, especially with knives.
It is the next step in an unexpected career that began with the airing of Benefits Street on Channel 4 in 2014, depicting the lives of residents of James Turner Street in Birmingham’s Winson Green area.
The programme, which counted her amongst its ‘characters’, courted controversy amid fears it was exploiting its vulnerable cast; Brummie comedian Frank Skinner, turned down an offer to narrate the series, citing concerns about its themes.
And the documentary series did not shy away from the more unsavoury aspects of its subjects’ lifestyles.
But Ms Kelly won fans for her appearance as the street’s unofficial ‘mother hen’, seen cooking meals for the hungry in the street and looking after children.
The programme was debated in parliament, with some praising it as of a microcosm of deprived communities across Britain serving as a wake-up call for action; others criticised it as exploitative and contributing to stereotypes about benefit claimants.
Some of those who took part in filming claim they were deceived into appearing on the show, claiming producers Love Production had told them the programme would be about community spirit.
White Dee arriving to enter the Big Brother house in August 2014, months after she appeared on Benefits Street
White Dee in a scene on Benefits Street, alongside James ‘Fungi’ Kelly – who died of a cardiac arrest in 2019
She has since spoken of her regret at appearing on the programme, claiming producers ‘stitched up’ those who agreed to be filmed
Ms Kelly has spoken about the damage she feels the programme has done before. In 2021, she said it ‘ripped my life apart’, at one point driving her to attempt suicide.
She said at the time: ‘Benefits Street caused such a storm and the people in James Turner Street were shocked by it and totally overwhelmed.
‘The show ripped apart my life at the time. It changed my life forever and it destroyed the James Turner Street I knew before the show.’
However, she went on to appear on Celebrity Big Brother, being paid a reported £50,000 to appear on the programme, and has since become an unofficial spokeswoman on issues affecting those living in poverty.
Hundreds of complaints were made to media regulator Ofcom, which ultimately ruled that Channel 4 had not breached broadcasting regulations.
Lee Nutley, a regular figure on the show’s second series, died in 2015. Neil Maxwell, another figure from the second series, was jailed for life for murder in 2019.
James ‘Fungi’ Clarke, who appeared in the first series, died of a cardiac arrest linked to a suspected drug overdose the same year.