'The Devil' changes his ways for good

Oct 5 2007 Caroline Innes, Liverpool Daily Post

SPEAK of The Devil, and the name of Stephen French will ripple through Liverpool’s underworld.

Once one of the most feared and brutal gangsters in Britain, the 47- year-old says he has now turned his back on his former criminal life and wants to set the record straight.

The man who netted more than £20m by using extreme violence to extort huge fortunes out of the country’s drug barons and most powerful crime lords now wants to use his influence to, in his words, “increase the peace” and spread an anti-gun message across Liverpool.

By his own admission, French says a new book outlining his criminal activities reads like a “horror story” outlining six attempts on his life and the shocking techniques he used to torture money out of drug dealers.

But now psychology graduate French says he loathes being described as a gangster and instead wishes to be recognised as an ambassador for anti-gun campaigning.

He says he knows there will be those who don’t believe his intentions are honourable and so, in a bid to show his commitment to the anti-gun cause, has met Detective Chief Inspector Mike Shaw, from Merseyside Police’s gun unit.

He said: “On occasions, Merseyside Police have contacted me when there is trouble in my own community. And I have now met with DCI Shaw and told him of my intentions to campaign against gun crime.

“People have daubed graffiti on walls close to where I live in Wirral saying I am a police informer and I know that I am putting my own safety at risk by taking this stance.

“But I am willing to forfeit my own personal safety for this cause.

“I have never been a bad man.

“I am a good man who in the past was capable of doing some very bad things.

“But when my daughter was born in 1994, I had an epiphany and realised I had to turn my life around as I wanted to be around to be part of her life.” He added: “All life is precious and we must try now and correct this heinous and ridiculous situation as a society we have found ourselves in.”

French says prices have been put on his own head from £5,000 to £30,000.

His enemies have tried to burn him, melt him with acid, shoot him and attempt to kill him in various other ways.

But it wasn’t until his own son, Stephen French junior, and his girlfriend got shot that he experienced first-hand how gun crime affects a family.

He said: “It was the summer of 2006 and I was working with the author of my book, Graham Johnson, in London, when I got a phone call that my son had been shot.

“The phone went dead and, for about 10 minutes, I didn’t know whether my son was dead or alive.

“I fell to the floor helpless and couldn’t move or speak. The feeling of anguish and powerless- ness swept over me. No parent should ever have to feel like that.”

French delayed the publicity of his book, The Devil, as a gesture of respect to the family of Rhys Jones, the 11-year-old who was shot dead by a teenage gunman in Croxteth Park six weeks ago.

It is believed that Rhys was the innocent victim of gang rivalry between gangs in Croxteth and Norris Green.

French condemned the shooting.

He also commended the sentences handed out to three men and a youth who were jailed last month for a total of 86 years for the murder of Liverpool teenager Liam Smith - whose gang it is thought may be linked to the investigation into the killing of Rhys .

He said: “What is going on in Croxteth at the moment is wrong.

“It is my desire through my Increase the Peace campaign to encourage people to come forward and end this ridiculous situation where an 18-year-old boy will kill his school friends for something as insignificant as him stepping on his trainers.

“These so-called respect killings are ludicrous. There is no respect in killing.”

He added: “I know people will see me as an unlikely ambassador but something has to be done now.

“I am in a privileged position where I have been embroiled in this world and my real fear is now for the seven and eight-year-olds that will hit the streets in 10 years.

“If there is no way out for them and nothing constructive in their lives there will be mayhem.

“This generation will have fathers who are murderers or have been murdered - that will be their pedigree.

“We need to get guns off the streets for their sake.”

Around 75% of the proceeds from French’s book and any subsequent film will go to his Increase the Peace programme, which he hopes will provide centres for youngsters to gain education and develop skills for their future.

* THE Stephen French story is told in The Devil, in bookshops now, priced £9.99.