Fog on the Tyne

by Bernard O'Mahoney

  Paddy immediately drove down to the police station and demanded to see DC Perky. The desk sergeant informed Paddy that he was not on duty, and so Paddy asked him to pass on a message word for word. ‘Tell Perky that when I see him he is fucking dead,’ Paddy said.

  The following morning, Paddy went to a flower shop owned by a lady named Ella Knights and ordered a wreath for DC Perky with his name, address and condolences written on the greeting card. Later that day, Ella’s son Freddie delivered the wreath to the police station. Paddy never did get a thank-you call from DC Perky, but the image of Freddie Knights walking into a police station with a funeral wreath in his hands has never left him.

  Chapter Six

  THE ENEMY WITHIN

  ON THURSDAY, 16 July 1992, an incident occurred at the Oz nightclub in South Shields. A gang that included David Glover junior, Dave Garside and a man named Scott Waters entered the nightclub at approximately 11 p.m. A notorious Newcastle villain named Philip Abadom immediately left the premises at speed and was pursued by the group. Minutes later, Abadom was found unconscious outside a nearby public house. He was taken to hospital, where he remained for several days in a serious condition. The head of South Shields CID, Detective Inspector Ian Smith, led the investigation into the incident and soon arrested ten men, who had been captured on CCTV entering the club. Those arrested, interviewed and bailed pending further inquiries included Glover, Garside and Waters.

  Soon after being bailed, Glover was arrested in relation to another matter and remanded in custody to await trial. When Glover appeared at South Shields Magistrates’ Court, an officer named DCI Felton attended in the hope that he could interview him further about the attack on Abadom. Before DCI Felton could do so, he received a message from Glover stating that he wanted to see him alone and stressing that he did not want his solicitor to know. DCI Felton spoke to Glover briefly in an interview room, and Glover said that he had information he would like to give to the police in exchange for certain matters, which he refused to elaborate upon. Glover said that it was vitally important that his solicitor must not know about his offer to inform, as he represented some of the people whom he wished to give information about. DCI Felton told Glover that he would have to be interviewed about the assault on Abadom in front of his solicitor but that if he was charged and wished to talk again afterwards then that could be arranged.

  Following a six-minute interview, Glover was subsequently charged with assaulting Abadom. After his solicitor had departed, Glover was returned to the interview room to talk to DCI Felton alone. Glover offered to give information about the importation and distribution of large quantities of drugs, which he alleged that the Conroy family, Dave Garside, Michael Bullock, Scott Waters and a man named John Chisholm were responsible for. Glover spoke for 45 minutes, while DCI Felton took notes. At the end of the conversation, Glover agreed to become a registered police informant and was given the pseudonym Adrian Scott. Before they parted company, Glover promised DCI Felton that he would relate to the police ‘any information’ he became aware of about ‘the activities of the Conroy family’.

  All registered police informants are given false names. Self-proclaimed cockney ‘gangster’ Dave Courtney was given the name Tommy Mack when he registered as an informant with the Metropolitan Police, and Darren Nicholls, who informed on the men convicted of the 1995 Rettendon Range Rover murders, was given the name Ken Rugby by Essex Police. Informants are given these pseudonyms to prevent their true identity and treachery being discovered by people who may eavesdrop on conversations or catch sight of names on paperwork that they were not meant to see. It is a seedy and rather abhorrent way to live one’s life. Little wonder Judas Iscariot went out to hang himself after betraying Jesus Christ. It’s a pity his modern-day counterparts aren’t man enough to do the same.

  Glover appeared to believe that he was a law unto himself after being given the status of police informant. He realised that if he got caught doing anything illegal all he would have to do to avoid justice would be to claim that somebody else had committed a more heinous crime, the details of which he would then trade for immunity from prosecution. In effect, he had a licence to break the law without any fear of retribution or penalty. After pledging his allegiance to Northumbria Police, Glover was granted bail and DCI Felton obtained permission from his superiors to allow Glover to deliver a huge parcel of drugs to an address on Tyneside that was allegedly linked to the Conroy family. This plot to incarcerate the Conroys failed miserably, but Glover, despite his incompetence, was kept on the police payroll. Paddy didn’t discover the full extent of Glover’s treachery until several years later, when it turned out to be too late. In the interim period, Paddy foolishly allowed Glover into his company, where he was was secretly conspiring against him, inventing stories and fabricating scenarios.

  The war that had waged on Tyneside between the Conroys and the Harrisons had been an opportunity for other members of the criminal fraternity to vent their anger upon their enemies without fear of detection. Every incident involving guns or knives was linked by the media and the police to ‘the ongoing feud involving the Conroys’. It would be naive to suggest that the Harrisons and the Conroys were totally innocent, but they and those loyal to them were certainly not responsible for every casualty during those troubled times.

  The Harrisons’ uncle Jimmy ‘Psycho’ Summerville was drinking with two friends in the Star Inn in Newcastle city centre one evening when gunmen walked in and blasted them with shotguns. All three men survived, but two of them suffered injuries that were so severe that they each lost a leg. Witnesses to the shooting described the scene as a bloodbath. After seeing the horrific injuries the gunshots had caused, one barmaid was taken to hospital suffering from shock. Despite the fact that it was a member of the Harrison family who had been shot, nobody could say with any certainty that it was a Conroy who was responsible. One man who undoubtedly was a victim of the Conroy firm was Billy Collier.

  He was rumoured to have desecrated the Conroy family grave. Collier had been arrested alongside the Harrisons for allegedly being involved in battles during the bloody feud but had been released without charge before their trial and subsequent imprisonment. Paddy made it known that he was looking for Collier. He also told his associates that if Collier had any sense he would leave the north-east and never return. Unfortunately for Billy Collier, he didn’t possess any sense.

  It’s important that people understand the type of individuals the Conroys were up against in this feud. In 1988, Collier had been imprisoned for three years after being convicted of mugging a frail seventy-four-year-old woman. Walking home, the pensioner was finding her way in the November darkness with a torch. She was also clutching a panic alarm. Collier, who was 17 at the time, pushed this lady to the ground and tried grabbing her handbag. As the shrieks from the lady and her personal alarm filled Collier’s ears, he panicked and became more violent in his effort to snatch the bag. When he finally walked away with the pensioner’s meagre possessions in his grubby hands, she was left lying on the pavement with a broken arm and pelvis. Traumatised by the cowardly attack that had been carried out on her, the lady no longer felt safe being on her own, and so she sold her home to go to live with a family member.

  Collier’s other achievements in life include convictions for theft, going equipped for theft, stealing cars, driving while disqualified and burglary. Paddy Conroy had been wrongly convicted and given a five-year prison sentence for hitting an able-bodied policeman, while Collier had got three years for robbing a pensioner and breaking her arm and pelvis. Justice? Don’t make me laugh. That’s not justice; that’s an insult to Collier’s frail and elderly victim. One can begin to understand why people like the Conroys never involve the police and prefer to serve up their own brand of justice.

  On Sunday, 13 March 1994, 23-year-old Billy Collier and his girlfriend, Michelle Mathews, took a mid-morning stroll to a local convenience store in order to purchase cigarettes. These days, every packet c
arries a government health warning about the damage smoking can cause, but I very much doubt that Collier had any idea just how much damage his habit was about to cause him. Dean Afzel, who was working at the John and Sons store on Elswick Road that day, later told police, ‘At about noon, Billy Collier was in the shop with his girlfriend. I was sitting at the till with my back to the shop door. Billy and Michelle were both leaning against the freezer in the centre of the shop talking to me. After approximately ten minutes, I suddenly became aware of a male entering the shop and grabbing hold of me. My first thought was that I was being robbed. My instincts took over, and I managed to break free. I ran along the side of the freezers and straight out into the back of the shop, where I locked myself in the storage area. After ten minutes, I unlocked the door and made my way back into the shop. Both Billy Collier and his girlfriend had disappeared.’

  According to Collier, when Afzel had sought refuge at the rear of his shop, three or four men had grabbed him. One of these men was David Glover junior; the two others were Scott Waters and Paddy Conroy. Struggling and shouting for help, Collier was dragged out of the shop and forced into the back of a red Range Rover. Moments later, Northumbria Police received a frantic call from Collier’s mother:

  Q: Hello, police control room, can I help you?

  A: Aye, Mrs Collier here. My son, Billy Collier . . . erm . . . a lad called Davy Glover and his mates have just took him away.

  Q: Right, do you know where they are taking him?

  A: They are taking him to do him over. I don’t know where they are taking him.

  When the vehicle pulled away, Collier was systematically kicked and punched. After five or ten minutes, the vehicle pulled up outside Glover’s house, in Chesterfield Road, and Collier was then led into a neighbour’s backyard. Blood was pouring from his nose and several superficial wounds to his face. Collier says that, once his kidnappers were all in the yard, he was ordered to sit on the floor but refused, and so two men forced him down. Collier was then beaten repeatedly across the legs with a 6-ft long stick. He was screaming and shouting about being unable to feel his legs, but this did not stop the man who was wielding the weapon from thrashing him. In fact, the man stopped beating Collier only after the stick had snapped on two separate occasions. Collier claimed that the man was Paddy Conroy and that, as Paddy stood back after administering that beating, David Glover picked up a heavy Calor gas bottle, raised it above his head and then smashed it down onto his legs. When Collier screamed in pain, Glover is said to have picked up the gas bottle again and brought it down on Collier’s legs four more times. Collier was sobbing and pleading for his life, but he claimed Paddy and Glover refused to show him any mercy. According to Collier, the attack then continued. He said that his head was kicked and punched like a football and his blood was splashed up the walls.

  It was alleged that, during the beating, somebody repeatedly shouted, ‘You’re going to get it, you little bastard, Billy. You’re going to get it.’ If somebody had been shouting such a thing, it was a naive comment to make, because, by anybody’s standards, Billy Collier was already ‘getting it’. After approximately 15 minutes, Collier appeared to be losing consciousness, and so the assault ceased and he was ordered to get to his feet. Collier, barely able to see because of the mask of blood that covered what had once been his face, tried to stand up, but he just kept collapsing in a heap. ‘I cannot get up. I cannot get up. There is no feeling in my legs,’ he whined. As he continued to plead to be spared further punishment, Collier was dragged back out of the yard and bundled once more into the Range Rover.

  Moments after Collier’s mother had telephoned the police, they had received a second call:

  Q: Hello, police emergency, can I help you?

  A: Hello, there’s some people beating up somebody at Chesterfield Road.

  Q: At the West End?

  A: Yeah, the corner house. It’s in the backyard. They have got a big canister, and they are beating somebody with it, and somebody’s screaming.

  Q: What’s your name?

  A: I don’t really want to give my name.

  Somebody being assaulted in the West End of Newcastle was hardly going to result in all police leave being cancelled, but, coupled with the fact Mrs Collier had reported an abduction, officers on patrol were asked to be extra vigilant.

  As Collier was driven around the West End, he was repeatedly stamped on and punched in the face and upper torso. When the Range Rover eventually came to a halt, two pillowcases were placed over Collier’s blood-soaked head and he was dragged along the ground to a house in Westmoreland Road. Once inside, the pillowcases were removed. Collier was then handcuffed, his legs were tied up with rope and he was subjected to yet another wave of flaying fists and boots. Because Collier’s hands were manacled behind his back and his knees were secured in the foetal position, he was unable to protect his head and upper body during this attack. It was clear to everybody present that Collier was not going to remain conscious for much longer, and so he was left to try to compose himself.

  It is alleged by those who were present that during the beatings Collier admitted that he had been paid £5,000 to dig up Leonard Conroy’s corpse, mutilate it and throw body parts through the windows of a family member’s home. At that point, Paddy claims that he told Collier that he wanted him to repeat the story to his brother Michael. Collier agreed, and so Paddy drove him to a flat belonging to one of Glover’s friends and told him to wait there while he fetched his brother. According to Paddy Conroy, it was while he was away fetching his brother that Billy Collier was tortured.

  Collier later told police, ‘A man who the others referred to as Scott was coming towards me with a pair of pliers. I was not struggling because I thought if I had a chance of living through this it would be better to accept the punishment. Scott put the pliers to the right-hand side of my nose and nipped them together. He then pulled them off my nose in the closed position. The pain was unbelievable. I couldn’t stand much more. He then put the pliers on the flap of cartilage between my nostrils and squeezed them into the closed position. He then twisted the pliers and tore my septum out. I was screaming in agony but they were just laughing at me. Scott then put the pliers in my mouth and gripped one of my front teeth. I could feel the tooth cracking and snapping as Scott applied more pressure. He did this to another tooth before twisting it and ripping it from my mouth; again, the pain was immense. A piece of my right ear was then severed using the pliers. I thought they had torn the whole ear off, there was so much blood. I cannot express the trauma that these acts caused me. I felt sick, dizzy and all the emotions one associates with extreme and prolonged pain. Those present continued to laugh or kick me like a football, as if it were some sort of game.

  ‘I was then left in the room on my own. I was in extreme pain, there was blood everywhere and I was violently sick. I was sure that when they returned they would finish me off. I mean kill me. I heard the front door close, which suggested to me that the men had left the house. About five minutes later, I noticed that the pliers had been left on a desk, and so I rolled over, picked them up and after a bit of a struggle I managed to free myself from the rope around my legs. I got to my feet, sat on the windowsill and somehow managed to open the window. I had no idea where I was at this stage. Directly below the window was an area of grass with a blue fence. I could also see houses. I tried to make my escape through the window, but I was still handcuffed. I managed to get halfway out of the window when a man I know named Paul “Peachy” Poland arrived and pushed me back inside. Peachy then climbed in through the window himself and closed it. It was then that Peachy told me that Paddy Conroy had already been arrested for assaulting me. Peachy told me that I had to go to the police station and tell them it wasn’t Paddy but make up another story of events. I would then be left alone for good. I was so relieved I could not believe it. I honestly thought that they were going to kill me. I agreed to Peachy’s request simply because I did not want to die. I had endured enough
punishment, and I feared for my family.’

  When Paddy left the flat of Glover’s friend, he had gone to his brother’s house before returning to his own home to wash Collier’s blood off his face. While Paddy had been extracting the truth from Collier about the desecration of his family’s grave, Collier had been crying and had sprayed or spat specks of blood all over him. Collier was a heroin addict, and the very thought of his bodily fluids being around Paddy’s mouth sickened him. That is why Paddy felt it important that he should return home to get washed and changed. Once Paddy had cleaned himself up, he drove over to the flat, where he had last seen Collier, but the owner told him that Glover and Collier had begun fighting in the bathroom and so had been ordered to leave. Paddy was told that before Glover had departed he had left a message for Paddy to meet him at a house in Westmoreland Road.

  When Paddy arrived, Glover had already left, and only Collier and Glover’s friend remained. When Paddy saw what had been done to Collier, he dragged Glover’s friend out of the flat, sat him in the car and asked him why they had given Collier a complimentary nose job and dentistry. ‘It wasn’t intended,’ Glover’s friend replied. ‘We only meant to frighten him by putting the pliers on his tooth, but it crumbled.’ The use of heroin does cause teeth to become brittle, and so it seemed like a feasible explanation, but no explanation was forthcoming regarding Collier’s other missing body parts. While Paddy was remonstrating with Glover’s associate, a police car arrived in the street. The driver glared at Paddy and then accelerated away out of sight.

  A few moments later, the police car returned and pulled into a communal parking area, where the driver had a clear view of Paddy’s Range Rover. Paddy told Glover’s friend to get out of his car and then started the engine and drove out of the street. As Paddy did so, he saw that Glover was heading back towards the flat. Paddy had no idea if Glover could see him, because Glover was looking in the direction of the police car. As Glover drew level with the vehicle, he waved at the officer inside and the officer waved back. Paddy stopped his vehicle, and when Glover did eventually make eye contact with him Paddy wound down the window to talk to him. ‘Be careful, Paddy,’ Glover said. ‘There is a policeman parked just behind me.’