One of my most memorable encounters as a former jailbird was with 'Ali', a notorious gangster whom I met days after he was released from a high security prison.
The Beatles we're talking about were involved in the kidnapping of 27 people and were given the nickname because of their English accents. They were a monstrous quartet who forced their hostages to stage mock executions and fight one another. They also beat them, electrocuted them with Tasers and placed them in chokeholds until they passed out.
He was made a category A prisoner — the highest level of security — and sent to some of the toughest prisons in the country, including Belmarsh, Frankland and Whitemoor. And, as Mr Hall said: 'There is an inevitable pressure in prisons for people to join a group. If the current flavour is Muslim, it could lead to them joining.
His family was religious and he felt it was time to turn away from crime. But the decision changed everything. His security level by that stage had dropped down to category C. After he converted, he said, 'everyone started getting worried. They thought I was going to turn into a suicide bomber. They sent me right back up to A- Cat and into the dispersal circuit — that's when it got really bad.
'The Piranhas were hardcore anti-Muslim types,' he said. 'They were fighting this long-running war with the extreme Muslims, and it was going on out of sight across the dispersal system. To overcome this defence their attackers would use a 'dipper' — a sharpened thin blade a foot long that could be inserted and removed leaving barely a mark.
But what makes Steve's story even more remarkable is that he was himself convicted of murder and at the time was serving a life sentence for killing Hull firefighter Barrie Jackson. Steve had been inside for 14 years and had just been allowed out on day release to attend a prisoner rehabilitation conference at Fishmongers' Hall, where Khan began his deadly attack.
'Someone set his cell on fire, but then some other Muslims retaliated with a stabbing. It all spiralled from there.' By this time Steve had decided to reject violence, but he couldn't hide from the exploding turf war on his wing. 'This tit-for-tat kept escalating. It started to suck in Muslims who weren't terrorists but were naturally affiliated with one side and so they ended up getting radicalised.
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