- today
In the final episode of the series, Bernie attempts to answer the age old question: "Does crime pay?" For many 'faces,' the initial adrenalin thrill of fast money and high rewards leads to decades of violence, prison life, destruction, fear and loss of life.
Uncover the intricate web of criminal enterprises, from notorious mob families to high-stakes heists, as we delve into the compelling stories behind the criminal masterminds and law enforcement efforts to bring them to justice.
Uncover the intricate web of criminal enterprises, from notorious mob families to high-stakes heists, as we delve into the compelling stories behind the criminal masterminds and law enforcement efforts to bring them to justice.
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TVTranscript
00:01Villains, gangsters, or faces as they prefer to be called,
00:05are the men that have been making newspaper headlines
00:07for all the wrong reasons over the past 50 years.
00:11Some are instantly recognisable, but many are not.
00:15If you don't stick a gun in your face, you're going to open up the door.
00:20I've got no worry about it. Even if the glass is bulletproof,
00:23and you know it's bulletproof, you're still going to open up that,
00:26because you're not going to trust your life against a bit of glass.
00:29Men like Eddie Richardson, Paul Ferris, Frankie Fraser, and Walter Norville,
00:35who have inspired fear and respect in equal measure for decades.
00:40People do fear me, yeah, because I was dangerous.
00:45In this new series, some of Britain's most infamous and influential characters
00:50have agreed to go on camera and tell it how it was and is.
00:54All of a sudden I went,
00:56I went, you move, I'll blow you fucking it off.
00:58Obviously, like, I didn't know it, but big down in me, like that.
01:00I went, argh!
01:02So I took a dive when the shot went off, obviously, to get behind me motor.
01:05And after I got behind me motor, I waited two seconds and I took a dive from the front door.
01:10And I slammed the front door behind us and got behind the brick walk.
01:13And that's when bullets all come through the front door.
01:16I've had aggravated burglary, torture, people being kidnapped and broken legs, broken arms, blackmail, racketeers, extortion.
01:26I've been done for everything you can think of.
01:29I'm not an electrician or a plumber or a dentist around for my arm.
01:34I'm a crook.
01:35And I get back into serious crime.
01:38And it paid dividends for the next five years.
01:41My name is Bernard O'Mahony.
01:44I was a friend of the Cray Twins and a member of the infamous Essex Boys firm.
01:48I know this world.
01:50I know the faces.
01:51And I'm going to give you a no holds barred history of the British criminal underworld.
02:10If you think gangs are glamorous and cool, be prepared to be disappointed.
02:15Because the only cool gang members that I've ever known were on ice in the morgue.
02:20And if you think you're too smart to be imprisoned, just bear this in mind.
02:25You don't have to be caught doing anything to be sent to jail.
02:28The very fact that you're associating with criminals could mean you end up dead or you spend the rest of your life behind bars.
02:36You know, in the long run, I spent two ten year sentences I did.
02:41And without the other little bits.
02:43About twenty six years of imprisonment I was sentenced to.
02:46And I've done about sixteen years altogether.
02:49So, I mean, it's not a thing I'd recommend to anybody.
02:53You know, there's all them fucking birthdays, Christmases and New Years.
02:58And when you land in the nick, that's not a nice time to be in the shovel.
03:02Well, I think my dad had done over forty years in jail.
03:06I've done about twenty five years.
03:08I think Patrick's done at least sixteen or something.
03:11Frank's done nearly more or less the same.
03:13We've done a lot of bird between us all.
03:16They know how to put us away, that's for sure.
03:18But, if you're in this game, you've got to expect the consequences of it.
03:23Of your problems, of your actions.
03:26I wouldn't advise you to do what I've done,
03:28because I've gone through a lot of pain.
03:30You know, the beatings, the stabbings, the shootings and the arrests,
03:35the jail sentences, it's not worth it in the end.
03:38Because I've been banged up most of my life, you know what I mean?
03:41If I was a young boy, right through to an adult, you know what I mean?
03:45It's not a life for anybody.
03:47Anybody that's in prison, they'll tell you.
03:49The time starts at nine o'clock at night when the door shuts,
03:52when the prison cell shuts.
03:54And most people now think in prison, oh, they've got computers,
03:59they've got this, they've got that, TVs.
04:01But, you know, there's a lot of lonely nights spent there and there.
04:08One man who's suffered more than most is Aaron Cocklin.
04:14If I was watching a programme called Faces or reading a book called Faces,
04:20the first thing that's been to my mind is,
04:22why is this person being involved if he's not a criminal
04:25or in some way involved with criminality?
04:27However, to me, a face is someone who's become notorious by hook or crook,
04:35you know, be it his own fault or not his own fault.
04:37You know, some people are born notorious.
04:42Some people achieve notoriety.
04:45Others have it thrust upon them.
04:48I've had it put on me from a young age by the police
04:54because maybe they viewed me as an easy target.
04:56But what forum do I have to set the record straight?
04:59You know, apart from a programme like this,
05:01which is, you know, you've taken an interest because of the notoriety that I've mentioned,
05:06it's by virtue of that that I've got the platform, if you like,
05:11in order to try and counter it.
05:13In 1994, Coughlin was arrested and charged with the murder of Chris Little,
05:18a notorious Stockport villain.
05:20Little had been shot in the head as he sat at traffic lights behind the wheel of his car.
05:25At the time of his arrest, Coughlin accepts that he had been involved in nothing more than relatively minor car crime.
05:32There was an absolute evidential vacuum in the early stages of that investigation.
05:38Of course, the pressure's on them.
05:39So who do they go for?
05:41Somebody who sticks out like a sore thumb?
05:44Somebody who maybe is an easy target because he's involved in some way in criminality?
05:49Because that seems a common theme with how the police do things as well.
05:52So, yeah, they wrote me in the description of the people.
05:58I think one was a black guy and one was a 45-year-old guy.
06:01And there I was, a skinny young man.
06:09Coughlin eventually stood trial for the murder but was acquitted.
06:14Yeah, the problem is, Bernie, after they'd been exposed, what are they supposed to say?
06:17Are they supposed to say, yeah, we are corrupt police officers, yeah,
06:21we did concoct stories and concoct evidence to try and cover our own inadequacy.
06:27Is that what they're supposed to do?
06:29Or is it more likely of people of their calibre that they say,
06:33oh, he's slippery, he's too clever, is this Teflon done?
06:37What are we poor police officers supposed to do?
06:39It's all so difficult for us.
06:41But what you're supposed to do is be straight.
06:43When you don't, you undermine everything.
06:45Therein lies the problem.
06:51In 2002, the police arrested Coughlin and charged him with the murder of a drug dealer named David Barnshaw,
06:58who'd been kidnapped, forced to drink petrol and burnt alive.
07:02A guy was kidnapped and taken away and he was killed.
07:06And that was a terrible thing.
07:11The original witnesses, and some of them independent,
07:16were given all manner of descriptions and what happened and all the rest of it.
07:20And again, almost to ignore all that and just try and get me at all costs in some way involved.
07:30One minute they wanted me to actually be there and try and suggest that somebody heard one word uttered
07:35and that that could have been my voice.
07:37Then when they realised that actually I was somewhere else,
07:41they tried to make out like I may have been orchestrating matters and all the rest of it.
07:46It was just really, really shocking.
07:48If you understood that case or you read the ruling,
07:51there was all manner of evidence against other people.
07:54There was no evidence against us.
07:56There was DNA on other people, no DNA on us.
07:59It wasn't rocket science, any of it.
08:01But I think one of the clearest indications of their mindset,
08:06this get Coghlan at all costs mindset,
08:09was a document that I found from one of the senior investigators.
08:13And what had happened is one of the original witnesses had said
08:16they'd seen a guy in a baseball cap and he was either black or Asian.
08:21It was dark, they weren't sure.
08:23And they found a baseball cap at the scene.
08:26That baseball cap was found to have a black man's hair in it.
08:30And, you know, a message must have come into the incident room
08:35from one of the officers saying,
08:36what do I do about this?
08:38Shall I send it off for DNA, for testing or whatever else?
08:41And the senior officer sent a memo back and it said,
08:49no need, all our suspects are white.
08:55Wow.
08:57The case collapsed and yet again Coghlan walked free.
09:02Coghlan's problems with the police were far from over.
09:05One evening he was approached on the street by two undercover officers.
09:09I was approached on a dark back street by two guys.
09:14One at least as big as me, I'm six foot four.
09:16He was at least as big as me, a bit wider.
09:18Dark clothing on, ridge inside his coat, never a good sign.
09:24And a black guy that I fought at the minute with him.
09:30They didn't identify themselves even when asked.
09:33And just the whole demeanour, you know, they looked aggressive,
09:36they looked like they were up for it, they approached me.
09:39Yeah, there was no doubt in my mind at that time
09:41that they had malicious intent towards me.
09:44So I defended myself.
09:46They both got hit.
09:48They both ended up on the floor.
09:51And only then did I realise when they were crying down the radios
09:54that they were police.
09:57Did I run off like anybody else would once that was realised?
10:01No.
10:02I stood on and I stayed there cos I didn't do anything wrong.
10:05So when the other police came,
10:06it was me who actually shouted them down the road cos they'd gone to the wrong place.
10:09Not that that's like the police.
10:11So I shouted them down the road and they actually ran at the two police officers first
10:18because of the way they were dressed and the way they looked,
10:20thinking they were the culprits.
10:21They were right.
10:23They then pointed at me and I was arrested and all the rest of it.
10:32So in anything that involves me,
10:34you can always rely on the police for one thing.
10:36They'll lie.
10:37It's just a standard.
10:40In this one, a great big whopper came forth,
10:45which was in the long run amusing.
10:49At the time, scary again,
10:51to be in a situation where somebody's looking you right in the eye
10:54and lying directly to you.
10:57And I remember we were on the interview and he said,
11:01he said these police officers were wearing overt body armour
11:04with police emblazoned across the front.
11:07I said, oh, emblazoned.
11:09You mean like Vegas.
11:10You mean I couldn't miss it.
11:12So just so I've got this right, what you're saying is,
11:14no matter what the verbals were, the visuals were such,
11:17that I must have known the police officers.
11:19Is that what you're saying?
11:20And he went, that is what I'm saying.
11:22I went, good, good.
11:23Cos in a world of modern technology,
11:25where we like to make sure the police are safe
11:27and all police stations are CCTV'd up for their safety
11:30at public expense.
11:31You won't mind while I have a coffee with my lawyer
11:34just nipping off.
11:35You can download it these days.
11:37No big long tapes.
11:38Download it.
11:39We'll wait here for you.
11:40And then we can clear all this mess up, can't we?
11:42Because they'll be coming out on CCTV
11:45and they'll have this overt body armour on with police emblazoned.
11:49Oh, they won't, will they?
11:51Cos they're lying, aren't they?
11:53I'll wait here for you, officer.
11:56And he starts all out, this is my interview
11:58and all the rest of it.
11:59And at that point, and rightly so,
12:01he was dismissed.
12:09It also transpired in that case
12:11that the SIO, that's the senior investigating officer in the case,
12:14was the right-hand man
12:18of the guy who had tried to stitch me up in the previous case,
12:22who the judge had slaughtered,
12:24he'd had to retire and all the rest of it.
12:26Erm, it turns out this was his right-hand man.
12:29And yet in interview, I was assured
12:31that they were aware of the problems I'd had before
12:33with Stockport Police
12:35and that they were independent
12:37and seconded in from outside the area
12:39to, quote,
12:41preserve the integrity of this enquiry.
12:43Nice.
12:45So it then turns out
12:46that it was this guy's right-hand man
12:49who was the SIO in the case.
12:51So he must have told them to say that to me in an interview,
12:54mustn't he?
12:55Because that's what they do.
12:56They sit upstairs,
12:57they decide what they're going to say in an interview,
12:58and then they come down and they pitch it.
13:00So the actual formula of words that was used to me
13:03was given to the officer who pitched it by the SIO.
13:08That's just what I've come to expect.
13:12Erm, when it all eventually came out,
13:16obviously the camera evidence,
13:19the most simple lie,
13:20the whopper that I referred to earlier.
13:22When it all came out,
13:24they were on camera walking out with hoodies,
13:27dark clothing,
13:29and I think there was a film years ago,
13:33Crocodile Dundee,
13:34and there was a guy in it who walked and dropped one leg as he walked,
13:37Delroy Brown.
13:38That's what they looked like.
13:40You couldn't have looked more like hoodie rats if you tried.
13:43Maybe that's the look they were going for.
13:46But it certainly wasn't police emblazoned across the front, was it?
13:53In February 2010,
13:55Coughlin was once again arrested for murder
13:58after a well-known Manchester villain,
14:00Stephen Akinyemi,
14:02was found dead in Coughlin's bathroom.
14:05There was a dispute between two people.
14:07Erm, that dispute was over a nickname,
14:11made all the more ridiculous
14:13by the fact that there was no confusion.
14:15One was black and one was white.
14:17I wasn't confused.
14:19Erm, but they were both my friends.
14:22And whether they're confused or not,
14:24if I can assist a friend to try and resolve something,
14:26then I'm gone.
14:28Erm,
14:29I'd arranged a meeting at my home.
14:31Erm,
14:32my missus and small child were there.
14:34Erm,
14:36the black party was there,
14:38the white party was due to come.
14:40The whole rhetoric
14:42of the fellow who was there
14:44was such that,
14:45that wasn't the day for the meeting.
14:47You know like that,
14:48he was getting heated about it and all the rest of it.
14:50Erm,
14:51so I just thought,
14:54better we deal with this another day.
14:56So I said,
14:57leave it to me.
14:58I'll speak soon.
14:59We'll sort out.
15:00Be no problem.
15:01Erm,
15:02my missus left at that point,
15:03er, with my daughter.
15:04I went to the gym.
15:05Er,
15:06kid in the creche,
15:07all that.
15:08He seemed to change at that point.
15:10Er,
15:11asked to use the bathroom,
15:12went to the bathroom and then shouted me up.
15:14I thought he'd missed the fact that the light's on the outside of the bathroom.
15:17Erm,
15:18and that's why he was shouting,
15:19because he couldn't find the light or something.
15:21As I came level with the bathroom door,
15:23it seems he's prepared himself.
15:25Er,
15:26he's,
15:27he's got a gun out,
15:28a little James Bond-esque thing,
15:30a little thing with a silencer on.
15:32And, er,
15:33demanded that I get the other guy there.
15:35Erm,
15:36to, er,
15:39to add impetus to his request,
15:41erm,
15:42he's then punched me in the face,
15:43thinking that maybe because he's got the gun,
15:45there won't be much of a response.
15:46And maybe if I thought about it,
15:48there wouldn't have been.
15:49However,
15:50erm,
15:51immediate reaction was to it in back.
15:52And, er,
15:54a struggle ensued from there,
15:55whereby I ended up getting him round the head,
15:57pushing the gun away from myself.
15:59Gun's gone off
16:00in that, erm,
16:01initial melee.
16:02Erm,
16:03look,
16:05that's it, the tiles are not me.
16:06Always a bonus.
16:07And, erm,
16:09whilst I've got him in that,
16:11I think he's trying to make sure the gun's not coming at me
16:13and trying to restrain his use of it.
16:15He's managed to pull a,
16:17a knife out,
16:18which showed forensically later,
16:19that he got it out of his back pocket.
16:21And, erm,
16:22he's,
16:23he's managed to stab me in the,
16:24in the jaw,
16:25which is cut down into the neck.
16:26Er,
16:27in the sternum,
16:28in the arm and in the hand.
16:30And, erm,
16:31during that,
16:32the gun's gone off a couple of times.
16:33And, er,
16:34he's fell away.
16:35I've not realised where he's been shot.
16:36It turns out it's caught him,
16:37er,
16:38in the head.
16:39I rang the police.
16:40Er,
16:41the police came,
16:42and Julie arrested me.
16:43Er,
16:44even though,
16:45the man had a gun,
16:46a knife,
16:47a bulletproof vest,
16:48had left his car offside,
16:49his phone's offside,
16:50so it wouldn't be sell-sided there.
16:51And,
16:52from the way the police were after it,
16:53and their actions after it,
16:54it seemed to me,
16:55even at the time,
16:56that they had knowledge of his intent
16:57and the way he was coming.
16:58Er,
16:59later,
17:00as the evidence unfolded,
17:01that came out to be true.
17:02They did know he was coming,
17:03sat across the road
17:04and watched the whole thing unfold.
17:05And,
17:18and when I survive,
17:19instead of,
17:20er,
17:21giving me a medal,
17:23maybe,
17:24for, er,
17:25for not getting the other guy there at gunpoint.
17:29Brass band?
17:30No.
17:31He arrested me,
17:32and put me on that high risk category man again.
17:34Nice.
17:35So,
17:36if it had been anybody else in the country,
17:38they'd have been defending themselves.
17:39There are people here about every day in the papers,
17:41they're using their own weapons,
17:43er,
17:44to defend themselves.
17:45Are they languishing on remand for,
17:47you know,
17:48five,
17:49nearly six months,
17:50like I was?
17:51Er,
17:52getting charges like that laid at the door?
17:53No.
17:54So,
17:55the way the police operate with me,
17:57is different than the way they operate with other people.
17:59Before the trial,
18:00forensic evidence came to light that proved his innocence.
18:04Forensic evidence came to light that proved his innocence.
18:07There was,
18:09the dead guy's DNA,
18:11non-blood,
18:12on the bullet cartridge consistent with him having loaded it.
18:15Not disclosed to me for five and a half months.
18:18The paint,
18:19that was on the hole that he'd made him mature as he stabbed me in the chest.
18:24Er,
18:25little fragments of paint.
18:26It turns out that that paint,
18:28matched the knife.
18:29The paint on the knife,
18:32matched a room in his house.
18:35Looks like CSI Miami, innit?
18:37And you think to yourself,
18:38well,
18:39they can't be really stitching you up then,
18:40if all that evidence came out.
18:41Well,
18:42therein lies the problem.
18:44That evidence didn't come out.
18:45That evidence was suppressed for nearly five months.
18:49It's difficult,
18:51even with the bentest of police officers,
18:53to get every single person all in a big circle to lie for you.
18:56I mean,
18:57they do quite good at it,
18:58but they can't hold it down forever.
19:00You know,
19:01actually, if you push, push, push,
19:02and you stand on,
19:03eventually you should get to the truth.
19:05So,
19:06when it all comes out in the wash,
19:08they knew that the gun was down to him.
19:10They could positively link him to the bullets and the gun.
19:12They could positively link him to the knife
19:14and left me on remand
19:16for all that time.
19:18It then comes out
19:20that they knew there was a meeting.
19:22They knew that there was a dispute between those two people.
19:25They knew that I was mediating it.
19:27They're watching all parties
19:29so they want to see what's going to happen.
19:31There is an allegation made against him
19:35during a two-week period prior to this incident
19:39of armed rape.
19:41Somebody reports him for armed rape
19:43in the lead-up to that.
19:45So whilst he's on surveillance,
19:47whilst they're watching me,
19:49watching him,
19:50and watching the other party who is in dispute with him,
19:52he rapes a girl at knifepoint.
19:55The police admitted that they knew it was him,
19:59that the suspect was identified,
20:01and that there was sufficient evidence to charge him.
20:05They didn't arrest him.
20:06They didn't preserve the crime scene.
20:08They did nothing.
20:09And why?
20:10Because they wanted to leave an armed rapist at large
20:13with a gun and a knife
20:15because they wanted to see what was going to happen to me.
20:18They sat across the road
20:20and watched him come into my home.
20:22And when I win,
20:24I then get arrested.
20:26Against that backdrop,
20:27I then get arrested.
20:29Really.
20:36After Coughlin was cleared,
20:38the press began calling him the Teflon Don,
20:41a title he neither recognises nor wants.
20:44Despite not being convicted of any charge,
20:47he spent five years in prison on remand,
20:49awaiting the various trials that he's faced.
20:53So, after all what's happened, Darren,
20:56you know,
20:57you must have a pretty dim view of the police.
21:00Well, you know what it is,
21:02any right-thinking person has got to accept
21:04that you need the police,
21:06they're important,
21:08public safety, all that.
21:10They're obvious points, but they're real points.
21:13The problem is,
21:15you know,
21:16when a few of them start the behaviour that's been exhibited in my cases,
21:20and just a few more beginning to join in that kind of behaviour,
21:23it's all going to go wrong, innit?
21:25Yeah.
21:26So it's important that they're brought to book,
21:28you know,
21:29legitimately brought to book,
21:30laid bare,
21:31so that the people who do do the job properly,
21:34they'll look at that
21:35and it might encourage them to stay on the right course, might it?
21:38So you're saying generally you haven't got a problem with the police?
21:41No, absolutely not.
21:42Listen, you can't,
21:43you couldn't sit there and reasonably say all police are bent, they're not.
21:47There's plenty of them who do a great job, innit?
21:49It's obvious.
21:51In 1984, Joe Steele was sentenced to life imprisonment,
22:01for six murders during Glasgow's ice cream wars.
22:04He spent 18 years behind bars before evidence emerged,
22:08which proved that he was in fact innocent.
22:11Throughout his sentence, Joe escaped from custody numerous times,
22:15to stage protests to highlight the injustice of his case.
22:19On one occasion,
22:20he superflued himself to the gates of Buckingham Palace.
22:24I don't always know I was going to escape in protest,
22:27and we're trying to find ways of drawing attention to the public,
22:31highlighting it,
22:32and I think it was my brother John that says,
22:35what about Buckingham Palace?
22:37I said, what about it?
22:38What about superglue,
22:40I know people have handcuffed,
22:41what about superglue yourself to Buckingham Palace gates?
22:44And I thought it was nuts,
22:46because I know any day with Royalty,
22:48you don't go to court,
22:49because you can't take Royalty to court.
22:51So I was more fear to get nutted off,
22:53and put in a Pamiccane.
22:55But anyway, I went ahead with it.
23:00I've actually got photos of the Queen looking out a wee window,
23:03up the tap,
23:05of Buckingham Palace.
23:07And her security,
23:10a couple come down,
23:11one says she wants to know what it's all about.
23:13Meaning the protest,
23:15what it was about, etc.
23:16The Queen wanted to know why you were there?
23:17The Queen wanted to know why I was on her gates,
23:19superglue to her gates.
23:21So I was shouting,
23:22the herbs with her shouting,
23:23tell them I'm innocent,
23:24and I'm this and that.
23:25So,
23:26I think it was after about five, six hours,
23:28a wee post for them,
23:29it was on the gate,
23:30due it with her.
23:31She said,
23:32they tried everything,
23:33all sort of household goods and things like that.
23:36What, to get your hands off the gate?
23:37To get my hands off the gate, aye.
23:39But this time they blocked me in with a fire brigade,
23:41fire engine,
23:42police car,
23:43police fans and whatever,
23:44and they blocked the roads off for the press,
23:47whatever.
23:48But it's still,
23:49people still get by,
23:50and we're taking photos and things like that.
23:51And...
23:52What were the tourists,
23:53what were the tourists doing?
23:54There were a lot of Japanese,
23:56Chinese people,
23:57they were cuddling me,
23:58and I don't know what they thought was happening,
23:59to be honest.
24:00There's me,
24:01stretched out the gate,
24:02superglue,
24:03with his Alvador Dally t-shirt.
24:04And the people came up taking photos
24:06and cuddling me all that.
24:07So,
24:08I don't really know what they made of,
24:09what they thought,
24:10this tourist thing.
24:11But,
24:12after six hours,
24:13a wee police woman said to me,
24:14erm,
24:15do you mind me try this,
24:17Joe?
24:18She had Dale found this remover.
24:19And we were worried about,
24:20my hands were getting numb anyway,
24:21and it was Scots,
24:22and split in the trees.
24:23So,
24:24she put this stuff on my fingers,
24:25and started slowly peeling it,
24:27and it came,
24:28I was up to six years,
24:29and then it came off,
24:30taking me for her to Charncross,
24:31police station.
24:32Supporters of the two men,
24:34who'd been protesting their innocence,
24:35for 14 years,
24:36cheered,
24:37as Joseph Steele,
24:38and Thomas Campbell,
24:39were put into the van,
24:40that would take them back to prison.
24:41Joe's protest outside Buckingham Palace,
24:44resulted in his case being reviewed,
24:46and he was eventually freed in 2004.
24:49I never deserved what I went through,
24:51I never deserved 18 years,
24:5218 years of my life,
24:54to hang out with me,
24:55for a family,
24:56ruining a family's life,
24:57I'd known to David,
24:58wiping my whole family out,
24:59kids,
25:00they don't ever know what I'm going through in my head,
25:02even to this day,
25:03they'll never know,
25:04what I'm going through.
25:05You know what I mean?
25:06You know what I mean?
25:07Eh,
25:08bad, bad charge,
25:09bad,
25:10bad,
25:11bad case,
25:12all right,
25:13hell of a bad case.
25:14Eh,
25:15I've seen,
25:17the boy,
25:18jumped out of the window,
25:19the boy Doyle,
25:20he's a taxi driver,
25:21I've seen him a few times,
25:22and I would imagine,
25:23he's seen me,
25:24as far as I know,
25:25there's no animosity,
25:26he doesn't blame me for this family,
25:27I may be lying,
25:28I've been telling this with people,
25:29that know the guy,
25:30and going well with him.
25:31But,
25:32I'm saying to myself,
25:35my whole,
25:36that's me,
25:37my whole family's wife too,
25:38nobody's in prison for it.
25:40I think the family will still,
25:42obviously hurt him,
25:43but I think,
25:44they would love to see,
25:45I'd love to see justice,
25:46I'd love to see whoever done it,
25:47the Doyle family,
25:48eh,
25:49go to prison.
25:50But,
25:51I cannae see it happening.
25:52Too many people have died,
25:53too many lies have been told,
25:54too many mistakes made.
25:56So,
25:57the police are never going to charge anybody else.
26:01Despite what the press say,
26:05prison is not all,
26:06Xboxes,
26:07TVs,
26:08and gourmet meals.
26:09Arm robber,
26:10Vic Dark,
26:11was sentenced to 10 years inside,
26:13much of it spent,
26:14as a double cat A prisoner.
26:16I tell you what happens,
26:17what really fucks me off,
26:19right,
26:20you get all these idiots,
26:21and these cat CGLs,
26:22saying about it,
26:23it's an holiday camp,
26:24it's this,
26:25it's that,
26:26we've got this,
26:27we've got that,
26:28not for cat of Gary A's.
26:29Cat of Gary A's,
26:30they're like a different class.
26:31You're banged up,
26:32you can't go to work,
26:33you're banged up 23 hours a day.
26:35I've spent,
26:36out of 10 years,
26:37I've spent probably five years,
26:38in segregation units,
26:40banged up 24 hours a day,
26:42which tests,
26:43I mean literally,
26:44tests humanity.
26:45Erm,
26:46you're escorted everywhere.
26:48I was escorted in,
26:49you know,
26:50if I sat there and told a normal person,
26:51I'm on a court with a,
26:52bin-harmed van,
26:53bomb-proof armoured van,
26:55three police cars in front,
26:57three cars,
26:58police cars behind,
26:59strip searched,
27:00they come in,
27:01my cells tested every day for gunpowder.
27:05They've got a thing called DST,
27:08dedicated to search teams,
27:10and obviously the cat of Gary A's are sectioned off,
27:14and erm,
27:15dug out all the time,
27:17for security.
27:18You spun all the time,
27:19you moved all the time.
27:20As soon as you land in the prison,
27:22you can't say,
27:23I'm going to stay here,
27:24because you're a double A cat,
27:25you get moved straight away.
27:26You know,
27:27if they fancy you for anything,
27:28straight down the segregation,
27:30good old and discipline.
27:31So,
27:32going into these sort of,
27:34you hear these knobs on prison,
27:35on the,
27:36in paper,
27:38saying about,
27:39they're sitting there,
27:40they're sunbathing,
27:41they're doing this and doing that.
27:42Fucking hell,
27:43you're lucky to see a bit of sun.
27:44I never see,
27:45I never see no trees,
27:47or plants,
27:49all I see was steel and concrete,
27:51for 10 years.
27:56You see so many people killing themselves in jails.
27:59It's,
28:00you know,
28:01it's,
28:02it's horrendous.
28:03I mean like,
28:04you bang a human being up for 23 hours a day,
28:06for year in,
28:07year out,
28:08it's special units.
28:09And you see their,
28:10the,
28:11and their sanity.
28:12But the bit what hurts me more than anything,
28:14the screws get off on it.
28:16Yeah.
28:17And that's what a bit what hurts you,
28:18and someone goes,
28:19I got,
28:20I got acquitted.
28:21I remember the night I went back after the,
28:23I got acquitted in Winchester.
28:25I got back and the screw went,
28:27ah,
28:28he's just cut his self up,
28:29he never done a good job,
28:30did he?
28:31I looked at him,
28:32I thought,
28:33that's a fucking human being mate.
28:34And then when I woke up in the morning to get released,
28:36someone took a drug overdose.
28:38And the same thing,
28:39screw turns around and goes,
28:41never done a good job,
28:42did he?
28:43Took an overdose,
28:44never,
28:45he's still alive,
28:46isn't he?
28:47He's a human being.
28:48And I thought,
28:49who's the animal,
28:50me or them?
28:51It's true,
28:52isn't it?
28:53Because they hate you.
28:54Like all high profile prisoners,
28:58since his release,
28:59Vic Dark has remained under the watchful eye of the police.
29:02You know,
29:03you've got to be careful what you say on your car,
29:06you've got to be careful what you say on your house,
29:09you've got to be careful all the conspiracies,
29:12or people fitting you up.
29:14You know,
29:15and that's what it's about.
29:16And about,
29:17it's still,
29:18still hard going.
29:19I mean,
29:20my house is like a fortress,
29:21I mean,
29:22because it made me like that,
29:23paranoid.
29:24But the technology today,
29:25which people don't under,
29:27you know,
29:28don't understand,
29:29it's so far,
29:30they can listen to anything now,
29:32especially mobile phones,
29:33they are literally bugs.
29:34And people,
29:35especially young kids,
29:36don't understand that.
29:37In April 2012,
29:4435 armed police officers,
29:46in full tactical gear,
29:48raided Vic's home.
29:50Every morning without a foul,
29:51I wake up at four o'clock in the morning.
29:54And I woke up,
29:55Bob's your uncle,
29:56four to five,
29:57I realised,
29:58I see this,
29:59erm,
30:00police marked car go past.
30:03Then I thought I was seeing things,
30:05I see a big sprinter,
30:06with armed police on top,
30:08a big green sprinter,
30:09with police on top of it.
30:11I thought,
30:12what the fuck was that?
30:13And then all of a sudden,
30:14an armoured vehicle,
30:15er,
30:16spread up,
30:17and I see them all jumping out the back,
30:18like they do in a rock.
30:19And I was really more annoyed,
30:20really,
30:21because I ain't doing nothing.
30:22That's what really upset me more than anything,
30:24because, er,
30:25I ain't doing nothing.
30:26I'm trying to lead a straight life,
30:28and I'm still getting loads of hassle from the police.
30:36Newcastle villain,
30:38Paddy Conroy,
30:39also spent time as a double cat A prisoner.
30:42It's an extremely dangerous environment,
30:44reserved only for the most high profile inmates.
30:48Whilst in Whitemore prison,
30:50an attempt was made on his life.
30:52Second time I've been waiting like this,
30:54er,
30:55and I was just waiting a little on me cell,
30:56and he was through the fucking door
30:57with this big fucking spike.
30:59I didn't realise it was a spike at first.
31:00I thought he'd hit us with a hammer.
31:01It hit us that hard,
31:02and he hit us right in the fucking head with it,
31:03and I knocked my head off.
31:04Erm,
31:05and I wasn't to left that,
31:06I realised it's a fucking spike,
31:07and he was fucking rearing it,
31:08doing it on us.
31:09And I just fucking,
31:10I was like,
31:11I was like,
31:12I was like,
31:13I was like,
31:14I was like,
31:15I was like,
31:16I was like,
31:17I was like,
31:18I was like,
31:19I was like,
31:20I was like,
31:21and I just fucking,
31:22just fucking hit him.
31:23I ended up fucking
31:24bashing him around every cell,
31:25every wall in the cell.
31:27I did,
31:28the whole cell got smashed up.
31:29He was on the floor unconscious,
31:30when the screws,
31:31heard the cell getting smashed up,
31:33and they come along.
31:34But I still had a hold of him,
31:35I had a hold of his,
31:36the hand with the spike in.
31:38Erm,
31:39when he was lying there still,
31:41I didn't know why,
31:42I just didn't let go of it.
31:43During the fucking whole fight,
31:44I just kept a hold of it,
31:45you know what I mean?
31:46So even when the screws come in,
31:47and he was lying on the floor unconscious,
31:49I still had a hold of his hand
31:50with the fucking thing,
31:51the sitting attacker,
31:53and I just,
31:54that was not what I could do,
31:55they just took my wolf away.
31:57Erm,
31:58put me down to hospital,
31:59there was a small hole in my head,
32:01but it hadn't penetrated in my skull,
32:03it just sort of put an indentation
32:05in my skull.
32:06But I broke my skull before,
32:08when I was younger,
32:09and it's much thicker there,
32:10where the spike landed.
32:12And it sort of,
32:13there's not what I could really do,
32:15but it really was only small,
32:16round,
32:17but it went halfway through the bone.
32:23Next morning,
32:24I was put down the block,
32:25the one that had done it,
32:26was already doing that portal.
32:28So I knew what they were up to,
32:29they charged me with salt on him as well as I had,
32:31because I wouldn't answer any questions.
32:34Erm,
32:35and they wanted me to go and explain.
32:37Well, obviously it's part of your defence,
32:39I knew what they were up to,
32:41to explain what had happened,
32:42just to get out of it,
32:43out of my own charges,
32:44but I wouldn't do that.
32:45I'll tell you that, Bernie.
32:46I just went and pled guilty,
32:48to assaulting Popple,
32:49and they just all shook their fucking heads
32:51when I'd done that.
32:52The governors and screws,
32:53and asked us to leave the room,
32:55again.
32:56Erm,
32:57the reason I'd done that,
32:59was because I would have to put Popple in it,
33:01for what he'd done,
33:02you know,
33:03I wasn't even going to drop Popple in it,
33:04I wasn't,
33:05the prison governors,
33:06I was in trouble.
33:07Erm,
33:10so they just sent me back out the room,
33:11they got Popple back in,
33:12and he got,
33:13he ended up getting 14 days,
33:14for being in possession of it,
33:15because he still had the knife in his hand,
33:17when he was,
33:18sort of arrested off the screws,
33:20as evidence,
33:21he was fucked for the knife,
33:22so he ended up getting 14 days,
33:23doing the block for that,
33:24but he didn't get any charges,
33:26for assaulting us or anything,
33:27they were dropped,
33:28when he went back in.
33:29Then they called me back in the office,
33:30and they went,
33:31right, we're just thinking about it.
33:32I just consider myself,
33:38a very, very righteous man,
33:40right,
33:41and if I'm right,
33:42I ain't fucking budging,
33:44doesn't matter what,
33:45who they are,
33:46what they are,
33:47it doesn't matter,
33:48I'm not budging,
33:49if I think I'm right.
33:50I keep my conscience clear,
33:52through righteousness,
33:53in my mind,
33:54and with my way of life,
33:55and I've got this reputation,
33:56and that,
33:57but I still,
33:58I still have a normal life,
33:59and in my normal life,
34:00I don't do anything bad to anybody.
34:02I'll,
34:03you know,
34:04I'm going to do what I've got to.
34:06Trouble comes my way,
34:08and if I can look more trouble.
34:14What do you think the police are trying to achieve?
34:16At the moment,
34:17I think they just,
34:18I think it's not just me,
34:19I think it's everybody in the country.
34:21I think they're going to wrap all up,
34:22all the big old villains from old,
34:24and I think it's going to be big swoops against me shortly,
34:27by this new national crime agency that's opening.
34:30British version of the FBI.
34:32They're collecting the intelligence in on one now,
34:35they've been working on it all the way for quite a long time,
34:37they've admitted this,
34:38and they haven't opened the doors yet.
34:40That's what I'm expecting.
34:43But what would you want?
34:47You know,
34:48that's what they want,
34:49to lock everyone up.
34:50But what outcome would you want?
34:52You know,
34:53what?
34:54I'd just like to be left alone.
34:58But I don't think that's the case.
35:00I think I'm caught in the history of everything myself.
35:09Another man trapped in time is Paul Massey,
35:11who believes the police will never allow him to move on.
35:15Like Vic Dark and Paddy Conroy,
35:17his home is routinely raided in an attempt to disrupt his life.
35:22The police come to the house and told me that I was getting killed.
35:27I said that Louise was getting killed.
35:29He said that his son and my daughter were getting killed.
35:32And he gave us an Osborne warning and left.
35:35Then not long after,
35:37the door come crashing in at the front of the house
35:40and the door come crashing in at the back of the house.
35:42I've jumped up to grab something.
35:44And before I know it,
35:45guys running through the doors with balaclavas on and overalls.
35:48And I thought,
35:49it's a hit.
35:50You know,
35:51because there's no shouting police or anything like that.
35:53Next minute I'm tied up,
35:55and then they shout at police,
35:57you're under arrest for money laundering.
35:58And that's when I was relieved
35:59because I really thought I was getting took out.
36:02Then when I was taken to the police station
36:04and then I was interviewed,
36:06which means give you the tape.
36:08It's the most utter crap I've ever been arrested for.
36:10And then I was released.
36:13And when I got home,
36:14I found out that my girlfriend had been tied up naked in the bed
36:17by eight guys with balaclavas on and overalls.
36:20My daughter, who's 14,
36:22she was dragged out of bed with no clothes on.
36:24And I've got my son, who's 21.
36:26He was tied up and took him for threats to kill on the police.
36:29He's never even been in trouble in his life, my son.
36:31All the charges have been dropped on my son.
36:34And then they'd done my girlfriend with disturbing the police...
36:37disturbing the peace in bed.
36:39Disturbing the peace in the bed?
36:41Yeah, while she's in bed, yeah.
36:46The police have brought this new firm
36:49of policing, heavy-handed police.
36:52They're not from Salford.
36:53It's not Salford police.
36:54It's outside police.
36:56And it's Operation Golf and Soccer.
36:58And they've come in and, like I said,
37:00they terrorised my house.
37:02They tried to terrorise me.
37:04It wasn't going to ever do anyway.
37:05And then they beat a lot of my friends up on the estate
37:10where they got a kid the other week.
37:13About 15 people there have been beaten up by the police,
37:18heavy-handed, where they're jumping out with balaclavas,
37:21overalls on, and dishing really heavy-handed treatment out
37:25to people for unnecessary...
37:27The people walking down the road with a tracksuit or whatever
37:29and they look like one of the lads,
37:31they're jumping out and they're giving them a beating.
37:33I've had people beating through in the bushes.
37:35They've got a kid where they smashed him all over,
37:38saying, where are the new gangsters around here now,
37:40and all this crap.
37:41Now, I thought these were supposed to be police officers.
37:44Now, you're going to bring police officers into Salford
37:47with heavy-handed and heavy tactics like that,
37:49you're going to lose the respect that they've got.
37:52They haven't got much anyway.
37:53You understand?
37:54They haven't got much respect around here, especially in Salford.
37:57And they need to report these officers that are being heavy-handed,
38:02the straight officers, and flush them out.
38:04Then you might get the respect back from the people of Salford.
38:08Because we all accept from Salford
38:10that if we go and commit a crime and we get arrested,
38:13we'll accept it and go to jail and face the consequences.
38:15There's no issue with that.
38:16But the way the police are behaving at the moment,
38:19I've never seen it in my lifetime, even in the 80s,
38:21when there was no human rights or anything.
38:24I've never seen police tactics like today.
38:30The police are taking a tough line on organised crime
38:33across the country.
38:35A new FBI-style task force called SOCCR
38:38has been set up to target high-profile criminals
38:41and disrupt their activities.
38:44With substantial resources
38:46and the latest surveillance technology,
38:48they're smashing gangs throughout the UK.
38:52Some villains see the operation as harassment,
38:55but Glasgow face Paul Ferris
38:57was one of the first to see the writing on the war.
39:00I read the depositions while I was on remand
39:03and I just kept going through witness A, witness B, witness C.
39:07No names attached to them, but the whole series of things
39:11that they had was security services, 25 years, security services, 10 years.
39:18And I couldn't believe some of the things
39:23where they've actually got me in their phone box
39:26and knew what numbers had dialed.
39:29And that's when I kind of realised...
39:33People coined a phrase, look the games up.
39:36I kind of looked at it in disbelief and thought,
39:39I never, in my wildest dreams, thought I would come to the attention of these people.
39:45And when you do come to the attention of these people,
39:47you're never off the radar.
39:49So there's a decision that was made very early on,
39:52before I was even convicted,
39:54that there is absolutely no way of taking these people on.
39:58If you want to take them on, it's a big risk.
40:00You're playing a big cat and mouse game,
40:02because of the technical proficiency that these people have got,
40:05the human resources at their disposal.
40:08And I made a conscious decision that I'm going to get my head done,
40:12whatever the sense I'm going to get, I'm going to do it,
40:14do all the courses and go out.
40:16So there was no great kind of inspiration when the doors opened
40:21in Franklin Prison in 2002 on January 21st
40:25for me to announce to the press that I was going straight.
40:28You know, it wasn't a kind of immediate inspiration.
40:32I had four year, eight months to think about it.
40:34And the four year, eight months was something which I said then,
40:39which was now 11 years ago.
40:41I've been straight now.
40:48For anybody that's wanted to go down and travel a road
40:51and organise crime or to get involved in whatever things,
40:57things that they see as an easy, fast buck.
41:01There's always somebody bigger and better out there.
41:04There's always somebody wanting to take you.
41:06There's always somebody wanting to betray you
41:08and there's always people that are jealous of you.
41:10But most importantly, the technical proficiency
41:13that the law enforcement agencies have got now
41:16is far superior to what I was reading way back then.
41:20So the message about that lifestyle, it's glamorous when you're in it.
41:29I mean, you're getting your money and all the rest of it.
41:31But when you realise how much it impacts on your own family and yourself.
41:38You know, you spend the biggest part of your years there.
41:41I've spent 13 years in and out of prison since I was 16.
41:45And there's no glamour in that.
41:47I'm currently involved in looking at repeat offending issues
41:51and hopefully offering voluntary things about that.
41:55We need magic wand to say, look, the crime's going to stop overnight.
42:00But people should always remember
42:02they're bigger and bigger gangsters than on the street.
42:05They're actually in the House of Lords.
42:08They're MPs, they're politicians, they're chief constables.
42:11These are the guys that's controlling things.
42:14And funnily enough, when you look at the biggest cause
42:19of drug deaths in the UK for heroin overdose
42:23is a combination of heroin and methadone.
42:26And then when they get the heroin, they find out it's coming from Afghanistan,
42:29which is quite funny in a sense that an occupied country
42:33with 95% purity lands in the UK.
42:37So government agencies are bigger drug dealers than most people.
42:42Government agencies are bigger robbers than most people.
42:45And we just need to look at the collapse of the banking institutions
42:49to realise how these hedge funds have got absolutely no concern whatsoever
42:55for people that have been putting their pensions away for their retirement.
43:00So the whole question is, who is real villains?
43:03Who is the faces behind the organised crime?
43:07Faces today are fighting a war on two fronts.
43:14On one hand, ruthless police tactics are isolating and destroying firms across Britain.
43:20And on the other, the use of heroin and crack cocaine
43:24as strip gang members of respect, loyalty and trust.
43:28The vast amounts of money that can be made dealing in hard drugs
43:33has resulted in the rule book being torn up.
43:36There's only one true governor today, and that's the gun,
43:40which is being carried by every no-hoper
43:42with enough hard cash to rent or purchase one.
43:45That's why most of the old school have wiped their mouths,
43:49conceded that villainy is a lost cause
43:52and walked away to live out the rest of their lives in peace.
43:56Well, you know your time has come
44:07And you're sorry for what you've done
44:11You should have never been playing with a gun in those complicated shadows
44:18Oooo
44:25Oooo
44:28Oooo
44:29Oooo
44:31Oooo
44:32Oooo
44:33Oooo
44:34Eso
44:35Y
44:36Y
44:37Y
44:38Y
44:39Y
44:42Y
44:46Y
44:47C
Recommended
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11:49
13:44
1:34:50
44:11
1:00:03