Stephen French’s 10-year campaign to portray himself as a reformed gangster and born- again Christian today lay in tatters as he was locked up over a dramatic city centre gun showdown.
The 53-year-old, nicknamed The Devil because he struck such fear into the drug dealers he “taxed” and tortured, claimed a Road to Damascus-style conversion had put an end to his evil ways.
Today, in a letter to the ECHO, French issued an apology “to the whole of Merseyside” as he began a three-year spell in jail.
He was jailed for pistol-whipping a city businessman with an imitation gun over a money dispute – before dumping the weapon and a machete into the Mersey.
The armed siege to accost him saw parts of the city centre cordoned off as stunned locals and tourists watched on.
A two-page letter – signed off as “ST French, formally ‘the Devil’, now ‘the Fighting Preacher’ claimed: “I pistol-whipped a punk and I believe it saved my life. I truly do.”
Liverpool Crown Court yesterday heard how French, a partner in a successful debt collection business, and his victim, Paul Smith, traded insults and threats by text before arranging a “confrontation” at the offices they both rented out at the Il Palazzo complex, in Water Street.
He pulled out a £90 Sig Saeur air pistol he bought hours before at a store in Whitechapel as a skirmish spilled into the public lobby before a terrified receptionist.
Ninety minutes later, an “agitated” French, dressed in his trademark suit, was seen near the Museum of Liverpool cradling an item wrapped in a handkerchief, which he dumped in the river.
A stainless steel air gun and an eight-inch machete were later pulled from the water.
Judge Stephen Everett accused French of “hypocrisy”, after hearing how he had worked as an anti-gun campaigner helping city youths avoid a life a crime.
Character references written in support of French described him as a “humanitarian” who had “chosen to turn his back on his old lifestyle”.
Judge Everett told French, formerly of Eleanor Park, Prenton, he was wrong to take the law into his own hands.
He told French: "Having […] taken part in high-profile campaigns, particularly to guns and knives, you will appreciate the strong sense of hypocrisy that comes across as a result of your actions.
“Here is a man who professes strong sentiments about gun and knife crime, when then, on February 21, resorted to using an imitation gun and taking at least, if not using, a bladed weapon.
“The hypocrisy comes through very clearly.”
French’s barrister, Peter Killen, told the court that French pulled the weapon on Mr Smith in fear for his safety.
The day before the showdown, Mr Smith sent a message to French warning: “If I lose money out of this pension s***, I will end you, you daft ****.”
Another message said: “If you want to meet, I’ll meet, if you want to fight, I’ll meet.”
Mr Killen said: “The defendant was disturbed by the threats he had received by Smith.
“That is the reason why he had purchased the items before the meeting.
“He was afraid of Paul Smith, who he believed to be capable of very serious violence – particularly with the text message to “end” him, which Mr French believed to be a threat to his life. He believed they were serious threats.
“He felt he couldn’t avoid Mr Smith.”
Mr Killen added: “It is of considerable regret to him that this conduct, this offending, will undermine the credibility of his work.
“As he said to me, it is 10 years’ work ruined by one day’s madness.”
The area of the waterfront that was closed off
While acknowledging that French was threatened, the judge said he had “no sympathy” and told French he should have gone to the police.
He told him: “You took the gun to meet fire with what you thought was going to be fire.
“What you did was more akin to a gangster than a businessman.”
On arrest, French told police he had been attacked and had wrestled the gun from Smith. He told police: “A man tried to kill me today. I took the gun off him.”
But he later admitted that he bought the gun and the machete, which he did not use in the confrontation.
Judge Everett told how the drama unfolding in the city centre had aggravated the offence.
French admitted possession of a firearm and possession of a bladed article.
SIGNED BY THE DEVIL: ‘I accept my crime. I will accept my punishment’
STEPHEN FRENCH today vowed to “accept his punishment” in a letter sent to the Liverpool ECHO.
He claimed that he pulled the gun on Paul Smith in fear for his life, and had been residing in the Hilton hotel for his safety.
In the candid letter, penned from his cell, he addressed a section to the “young men that trusted me and followed me”.
He wrote: “I accept my crime. I will accept my punishment.
“I take full responsibility for my actions.
“I have written to the receptionist to apologise for the distress that my behaviour caused her.
“For this I am truly sorry, I have to serve a prison sentence. This is only fair.
“The police in this instance never acted corruptively. They did not need to.
“I pistol-whipped a punk and I believe it saved my life. I truly do.”
A police officer climbs out of the River Mersey with the gun
French, once one of Britain’s most feared gangsters, tells how he took this “punk’s threat seriously” and admits: “I am a flawed man”.
He signs off with an apology “to the whole of Merseyside” and said he took matters into his own hands because of a distrust of the police. French, who claims that his house has been petrol- bombed and his family threatened, concludes: “I tried my best to live in peace but this punk just would not leave me. I do not trust the police.
“I know you think I should have gone to them but they wanted me dead as far I was concerned.”
Source: http://www.liverpoolecho.co.uk/