MEL C HITS OUT AT U.K.'S YOUTH CRIME!

Former SPICE GIRL MELANIE CHISHOLM is worried about the rise of youth crime in her native Britain, insisting the innocence of childhood has been "stripped away" by violence. The singer is set to headline a gig in her hometown of Liverpool, England, next month (Aug08) in memory of 11-year-old Rhys Jones, who was shot dead there while riding his bike last year (07). And she insists she is haunted by the child's death.

She says, "It terrifies me to think that little kids are growing up in a country that is getting more and more violent. Kids carrying knives is just too awful to think about. "But we can't sit around being shocked. We all have to do what we can to try to stop it. "All I think about is what sort of low self-esteem and sense of self-worth these kids have if they accept that being killed in this culture of violence is just a fact of their lives."

You recall I met her at last June's MMVA's