Gang Wars of the North - The Inside Story of the Deadly Battle Between Viv Graham and Lee Duffy. Stephen Richards
but Viv Graham suffered fewer armed attempts on his life than his Teesside counterpart. But one incident, in 1989, when Viv was working the doors of a Newcastle nightclub, was particularly troubling. Viv refused entry to a man, who decided to get even. To make things worse, at this time the super-tough doorman was becoming complacent with his own security. This allowed a sinister-looking black Nissan saloon to follow him unnoticed and later pull up and wait for him to get out of the car he was in.
The gunman in the Nissan shot at Viv out of a rear window, preferring to stay within the safe confines of this fast car. That is how frightened the hitman and his driver were of Viv. They feared that even the pump-action shotgun the gunman was toting might not be enough to slow their target down, so they were not taking any chances.
Rob Armstrong, who was with Viv, had his city wits about him and he could see what was going on. He shouted at Viv to move. Then he dived on his friend, who had his back to the masked gunman, and pulled him to the ground. For this heroic deed, Armstrong paid a price: he was shot in the back while making towards Viv and shot at again while lying protectively on top of him on the ground. A man emerging from a nightclub suffered slight facial injuries in the incident.
It was all over as fast as it had started, and the black Nissan sped off with its occupants tucked safely inside like sardines in a can. There was no chance these little fish were going to fall out of their protective tin into Viv’s hands. In time-honoured gangland fashion, the car was dumped and burned, with its number plates removed, a mile away from the shooting.
Viv survived this murder attempt bungled by a couple of losers, but it was a foretaste of what was still to come on New Year’s Eve 1993.
The problem was, Viv was not as aware of his surroundings as he needed to be. He took too much for granted, a habit which in part stemmed from his having grown up in the countryside, where things could be trusted to always go the same way, day in and day out. Compare the scenario of that shooting with how Duffy habitually reacted when facing such an attack. In this respect Duffy was streets ahead of his Tyneside rival.
To underline the point, when a huge man like Rob Armstrong moved fast to protect his friend, he was trading on the heightened instinct for survival that many if not most city dwellers come to possess. Such rapid reactions are honed by mundane, everyday actions like jumping out of the way of a speeding car or darting across a busy city road. They are a conditioned reflex.
It was clear, however, that anyone who was intending to kill Viv could not count entirely on his relatively slow responses to guarantee their own safety. Nor could they run the risk that he might be able to hit back at them with his raw physical power even after he had been shot. This is why his would-be killers carried out their attack from the safety of their sporty Nissan. For the same reason, a vehicle of some kind would always play a part in attempts on his life.
This happened during a spate of particularly vicious attacks on locals. One burglary of a 90-year-old man’s home involved the victim being tied up and the heating turned off. He was left for a day until he was found nearly dead. He died in hospital a short while after this sadistic attack.
In May 1998 31-year-old Gary Thompson was charged with the murder of the old man who was burgled, Thomas Hall, along with 11 others who faced various related charges.
In a subsequent murder trial Thompson was found guilty and is now serving a life sentence in prison. Charged alongside Thompson were George Luftus, 49; Geoffrey Smith, 39; David Clark, 28; John Douglas Trattels, 39; Christopher Dale, 35; Paul Dees, 28; William Renforth, 27; Allen Sidney, 29; Diane Hemmings, 43; and Lorraine Trattels, 40. The offences included conspiracy to rob and handling stolen goods. William Trory, 59, was charged with attempting to pervert the course of justice and assisting an offender. He had given Thompson shelter during the time the police had been looking for him.
Returning to Duffy, we have seen that there were a string of acquittals of people accused of crimes against him. One instance was the acquittal, in October 1992, of the seven men charged with conspiring to cause him grievous bodily harm. You may recall that the charge against the seven had been reduced from one of conspiracy to murder. Since it shines more light on Lee Duffy and the world that he moved in, let’s look more closely at the trial of these men: John Leroy Thomas, 36, Leroy Vincent Fischer, 31, Marnon Clive Thomas, 31, Peter Corner, 23, Shaun Thomas Harrison, 25, Paul James Bryan, 31, and Kevin James O’Keefe, 32.
The main prosecution witness, Ria Maria Nasir from Teesside. Nasir refused to give evidence against the seven accused and was advised that she did not have to answer questions that might incriminate her. The prosecution, led by Andrew Robertson, told the jury that he was ‘compelled to offer no evidence’ and that ‘Miss Nasir is the main prosecution witness, but her attitude shows her evidence isn’t going to be forthcoming’.
The people who attempted to kill Duffy are cold, callous people. They kicked in the door of a woman who was nine months pregnant and stuck the twin barrels of a sawn-off shotgun into her mouth in order to find out where Duffy was and then they robbed her and her sister of jewellery. But it was a pregnant woman, not Lee Duffy, the ‘Terminator of Teesside’. No one was ever convicted of these crimes.
Nasir gave an interview to the local press some four months later and said that she would persist with her lifestyle in spite of a series of alleged sinister attacks on her home.
They say that hell hath no fury like a woman scorned. Ria Nasir put a great deal of emphasis on her family having been threatened, yet, when Duffy’s family and unborn child were traumatised, the court process could not help. The Crown’s case was that a contract was put on Duffy because he was stepping on the toes of other people carrying out illegal acts.
Duffy, with some of his followers, allegedly broke up a blues party and the party organiser was told to give him the proceeds. This was the final straw that resulted in a contract on Duffy. In the event, the Prosecution reviewed the evidence and decided not to proceed. All the Defendant’s were found not guilty.
After the trial collapsed, Lisa Stockell asked the then MP for Redcar and Cleveland, the late Mo Mowlam, to intervene and all seemed well until about a week later, when Mowlam told Lisa that she could not get the paperwork released to her.
Criminal injuries payments are meagre, but every little helps. Such payments for the loss of Lee Duffy were not pursued, Lisa was told, because legal aid would not be forthcoming since Lee had a criminal record. After Viv Graham, a top underworld figure who had a criminal record comparable with Duffy’s, was gunned down and murdered on Tyneside, criminal injuries payments were made on his behalf to one of Viv’s three girlfriends, Anna Connelly. What was the difference?
One of the reasons given as to why the prosecution did not call Lisa was that, immediately after the robbery, she was asked if she would be able to recognise any of the men and she gave an emphatic ‘no’.
The other side of Duffy – the aggressor rather than the victim – is illustrated by the case brought against him for his attack on Peter Wilson in April 1991. The Wickers World pub in Middlesbrough was the scene for this violent assault on the doorman. Wilson, a kick boxer well able to look after himself, was hit so hard that his neck was broken. Many believed that Duffy had used a beer can to smash the man with, but a private investigation revealed that it was his unaided fist that had inflicted the damage.
The following is from a letter, dated Sunday, 2 June 1991, that Duffy wrote from HM Prison Durham:
‘Now then, I thought I would write and tell you the crack of late. They’ve let me out of the block and back on the wing, so that’s all right. I can get to the gym now and have a crack with the Boro lads. People thought I was on protection, all kinds of stories flying about. Well, I’m here now so anybody’s got a chance to see me, I’m ready and willing!! Everyone has been to my cell asking about me.
‘A million “alright, Lee mates”, half of them were slagging me off when I was down the block!! They make me sick, two-faced cunts … The idiot with the petrol is in here, I haven’t seen him yet, if I chin him, I’ll only end up in the block again, it can wait. Beefy, Paul and Nipper got bail. My Judge-in-Chambers was knocked back XXXXX!!!