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From Toxteth to Iraq never a desk job
by Conrad Astley30/ 6/2005
ONE of Andy Hailwood's most enduring memories is arriving as a
fresh-faced teenager to help police the Toxteth riots.
Just 18 months into the job, he was sent over to help Merseyside
officers deal with the civil disorder.
He said: "You're sitting in the coach going passed burnt-out
buildings and vehicles that had been turned over. You're there as a
19-year-old lad thinking `this isn't real, this is something you
see on TV.'
"There were bobbies that had been battered, with bandages on their
faces. The only protection they had was dustbin lids."
Andy might have been thrown in at the deep end, but his career was
not about to calm down much over the following two decades. He
never ended up behind a desk.
Until he retired in 2000, the officer dealt with some of the most
violent incidents in Manchester's gangland history, freed hostages,
swooped on a notorious Salford drug gang, and oversaw events like
the miners' strike and the return of Myra Hindley to Saddleworth
Moor.
Now, he has written Gun Law about his time dealing with some of the
most high profile incidents to hit Greater Manchester.
As a teenage recruit, he also dealt with the Moss Side riots, which
he says were eventually stopped by gangsters because the reinforced
police presence was harming the drugs trade.
He then spent four years with GMP's tactical aid group, before
being transferred to the firearms division in 1987.
One incident in the book describes how he arrested members of an
infamous Colombian cartel - rumoured to be the world's most
powerful drugs gang.
The gang had been distributing huge quantities of cocaine into the
UK via a warehouse in Collyhurst and intelligence had revealed two
of their leading figures were coming to Manchester to check on the
operation.
One of the gangsters was ambushed by officers in his car, while
Andy had to enter a city centre hotel and track down the second
figure.
After seeing the gangster preparing to leave a hotel room, Andy
rushed downstairs, pointing him out to other officers who
pounced.
He said: "It was a hard hit tactic. I identified the person and
then they just had to go for it. There's no messing about in that
situation, you don't know if he's carrying a weapon or who his
associates were.
"They went through our prison system and we were led to believe
that their families were executed back in Colombia, because the
gang didn't want any weak links."
Andy also provided armed back-up for surveillance officers who had
been following IRA members based in Didsbury and Longsight.
The IRA men, who were bringing explosives into the country via
Holyhead and burying them in woods near Macclesfield, were
eventually arrested in Salford.
But Andy had to break into a building occupied by another
terrorist, who police feared had been a "third eye" - an agent who
follows surveillance officers.
There were also concerns the premises may have been booby trapped,
and Andy had to get advice from the bomb squad before
entering.
Much of Andy's work was spent dealing with the aftermath of
shooting incidents in Moss Side, such as the death of 16-year-old
Ben Stanley - a young boy (pictured below) killed outside a
takeaway after he was mistaken for a gangster.
He said: "What sticks in my head is the sheer destructive nature of
young men, and what they would do to each other. It was just young
males killing other young males.
"When Ben Stanley was killed, he was shot with a weapon that was
intended to kill buffalo. The effects of a shotgun with rounds like
that are absolutely devastating.
"These incidents made me understand what a horrible thing a firearm
is. I've no time for them at all, and I've no time whatsoever for
people who go shooting for fun."
Andy has continued to glimpse the darker side of human nature as he
has recently been working in Iraq, training bodyguards who he says
will deal with "high-profile" clients.
He said: "I saw the devastation of suicide bombings all the time.
People don't support them because there's too many people being
killed, but they can't publicly condemn it because that would make
them a target.
"It makes them very upset, and they have a way of tutting which
sounds quite powerful when you hear a lot of people doing it.
"It's a horrible place at the moment. You can see how Baghdad was
once a lovely city but it's totally devastated now.
"It does make you wonder whether we did the right thing. People
there say they're better off now than under Saddam, but only
just."
Gun Law is available in paperback from today
(Friday).
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