A KILL ..FOR £25K May 4 2003
By Sunday Mirror Investigations Team


CONTRACT killers and gangland thugs who murder and maim for cash have become the sinister new face of violent Britain.

It took Sunday Mirror investigators just 24 hours to meet three hardened gangsters who boasted of making a lucrative living from death and torture.

They each offered a chilling menu of violence that has been used with devastating results across the country.

For starters they offer a severe beating for £500 or a slashed face for £1,000 - a sum that increases depending on the "client's" preferred level of violence.

Both kneecaps could be broken with a golf club for £15,000 - the fee is sizeable because it "can be quite noisy" when the victim screams in agony.

But the main course is the £25,000 ultimate solution - a contract execution.

Police are becoming increasingly concerned about the number of people willing to use hitmen.

Only last week Welsh businessman Wilson Fallows, 57, was jailed for five years after trying to hire a contract killer to murder his estranged wife, Karen.

He offered an undercover cop £10,000 to kill her so he could avoid a £150,000 divorce settlement.

Our investigation shows just how easy it is to find real hitmen in Britain today.

Hours after making initial inquiries we had calls from three men wanting to discuss our plans - and a day later we met them face-to-face in Northampton, Liverpool and London.

GANGSTER ONE met a reporter posing as a Birmingham businessmen desperate to have his business partner executed.

After a military-style operation to ensure he was not being followed, the gangster offered to carry out the killing for £25,000, with £15,000 up-front.

He told our reporter to drive to Northampton and wait for further instructions.

There, he rang again and directed us to a deserted lay-by on the A45. A champagne-coloured Vauxhall sped up and two heavies stepped out, while a black BMW kept watch nearby.

Known only as Wayne, the hardened thug had a muscular 6ft 2ins frame and wore a three-quarter-length leather jacket.

Our reporter told how his business had gone wrong and he needed his girl partner executed.

Wasting no time, Wayne said: "I need the address and a photograph, and if you want it doing at a specific time I will need to ring to tell you when it's going to happen so you can be somewhere else. There are no comebacks."

Wayne then said he wanted £25,000 for the job. Asked if he needed it all up front, he replied: "You are not going to have to pay all of it. Not for a job like that. I am going to want £15,000 of it. Is that a problem?"

Wayne said nothing else would happen to until the money was paid. But he then got suspicious and demanded to search our investigator. When he refused, Wayne said: "I am sorry, we can't go any further," and sped off .

GANGSTER TWO boasted of a catalogue of horrific injuries he could inflict on victims - for the right price. Robert met our investigator - who needed a Liverpool business associate "sorted out" - in a pub close to his home in Ellsmere Port.

Swigging a large Bacardi and coke, he said: "I could jump out and do him and put him in hospital for a few days, which is £1,000. Just lay him out with this (he raises his fist) and then give him a good kicking."

Asked about possibly breaking the victim's legs, the shaven-headed thug, who is in his 30s, insisted: "That would be about £15,000. Although it would be easier to do, there would be a lot more noise because I would do his kneecaps with a golf club.

"The other way is that I just hit them once and he goes out for the count and then I do him more and put him in hospital for a few days.

"I only need about £350 up front and then I'll deal with it and come and get my wages off you."

Asked if he was good at what he did, he bragged: "Yeah, because that's what I do. That's how I make my money. It is my business and I not going to **** about and lie to you. I get the job done and walk away."

Asked how much it would cost to have the victim slashed, he removed his jumper to expose a body strewn with cuts, scars and tattoos - the result of a life of violence - and asked which scar we would prefer.

And Robert offered us a bizarre and brutal menu of maiming. He said: "The best way I could make him scarred would be Indian ink and a wire brush. If you want me to tattoo the **** I'll get Indian ink and do it three or four times on his face and he's tattooed to death. The worst I get is only 18 months Then the *******'s done and it's all over."

When we made our excuses the former boxer was driven off by a friend.

GANGSTER 3 met our third investigator - posing as a businessman seeking revenge on a partner who had stolen money - in a pub opposite Pentonville Prison in North London.

Everett, a notorious heavy-for-hire in East London, said he was the man for the job.

The 42-year-old underworld debt collector offered to slash the victim with a razor blade from ear to ear for £1,000. He said: "Every time he looks in the mirror he'll remember what he did. I could break his kneecaps, but they'll get better and he'll be spending you're money again."

Everett then reeled off his own menu of violent services, with a "simple beating requiring hospital treatment" for £500.

"I'll tie him up and beat him until he's near dead if you like. He should be dead anyway. I'll kidnap him.

"I won't **** about. Or I'll put him in a bag and tie him to the back of a truck for a couple of hours in a place where no one can hear his screams.

"I'll bury him in the ground for a couple of hours and dig him up. If you want him scared like that as well I will do that for you."

He arrived with his burly brother who had to "guard" the meeting.

Everett said: "He just sits there. If we get any trouble he's carrying things and he'll deal with them, even if it's five men who come through the door. He's a lunatic."

The use of gangsters to inflict violence for payment is causing increasing concern to authorities.

Labour MP Tom Watson, a member of the influential House of Commons Home Affairs Select Committee, said: "This is obviously a growing problem and I would urge police forces in this country to look very closely at."

Norman Brennan, chairman of the Victims of Crime Trust, said: "Contract killing is the most despicable of murders and the penalty should be life imprisonment. It is a growing problem in Britain although most chief constables would not want to admit it."

Our three gangsters were yesterday waiting for the phone to ring with details of another job.

But the next call they get will be from the police.

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