I will not go into detail but the screw put up a little bit of a resistance, fair play to him, but we were so desperate for the drugs in her medical bag that nothing was going to stop us getting at them. That is what happened, we got the bag of drugs from her hand. I can tell you, we were like two tramps round a bag of chips in a bin.

~ Stephen Richards

Stephen Richards Drug Addicts Jimmy Holland Scotland Crime Scotland Hard Men Scottish Hard Bastards Scottish Penal System Scottish Prison Sieges Scotttish True Crime Stephen Richards Stephen Richards Author True Crime

Porkie and me came to some sort of agreement with the screw and the nurse, and after some haggling we gave ourselves up. After that, I never saw my friend Porkie again until we appeared at Edinburgh High Court, where we each got six years on top of our sentences for one night of madness. That just shows you how drugs can get a grip over your mind.

~ Stephen Richards

Stephen Richards Drug Addiction Jimmy Holland Scotland Crime Scotland Hard Men Scottish Hard Bastards Scottish Penal System Scottish Prison Sieges Scottish Prisons Scotttish True Crime Stephen Richards Stephen Richards Author True Crime

The screws are just as bad as us, maybe not now but certainly in the past they used to beat you with their riot batons, strip you naked, cuff your hands behind your backs and then take shots of kicking you in the head and body until you were knocked out.

~ Stephen Richards

Stephen Richards Jimmy Holland Scotland Crime Scotland Hard Men Scottish Hard Bastards Scottish Penal System Scottish Prison Sieges Scotttish True Crime Stephen Richards Stephen Richards Author True Crime

The screws have brought all the revenge attacks on themselves. Most prisoners that have done some nasty damage in the system have come through the young offenders, where that was just a breeding ground for hatred from the screws point of view. They were famous for bullying and battering young, defenceless boys to the point of death, in some cases.

~ Stephen Richards

Stephen Richards Jimmy Holland Scotland Crime Scotland Hard Men Scottish Hard Bastards Scottish Penal System Scottish Prison Sieges Scottish Prisons Scotttish True Crime Stephen Richards Stephen Richards Author True Crime

I keep telling the screws over and over again, ‘If you treat a young boy in prison like a dog, keep him in a cell that is like a cage and constantly beat him and bully him, that boy is going to grow up hating yous and the system.’ The only thing on his mind will be revenge, maybe it is not revenge on the screws that so frequently bullied and tortured him, but in the boy’s eyes he is getting revenge on the uniform, as it all means the same thing in the boy’s or man’s eyes.

~ Stephen Richards

Stephen Richards Jimmy Holland Scotland Crime Scotland Hard Men Scottish Hard Bastards Scottish Penal System Scottish Prison Sieges Scotttish True Crime Stephen Richards Stephen Richards Author True Crime

It was so funny, I witnessed this with my own eyes, Andy and the screw were like two WWF wrestlers, we were locked behind the grill gates cheering Andy on, the chants started. The chant was to the tune of Jingle Bells and went like this: Stab a screw, stab a screw, stab a screw today, all that fun it is to stab a screw on New Year’s Day, but it was only 29 December.

~ Stephen Richards

Stephen Richards Jimmy Holland Scotland Crime Scotland Hard Men Scottish Hard Bastards Scottish Penal System Scottish Prison Sieges Scotttish True Crime Stephen Richards Stephen Richards Author True Crime

Before Mags became a household name across Scotland, it was during the mid Nineties when she became an avid anti-paedophile campaigner against paedophiles on the Raploch Estate, attracting media attention, even appearing on Robert Kilroy-Silk’s morning TV show. At the height of her anti-paedophilic crusade, she led a howling mob of protesters to a hostel near her home where a known paedophile was staying.

~ Stephen Richards

Stephen Richards Jimmy Holland Scotland Crime Scotland Hard Men Scottish Hard Bastards Scottish Prison Sieges Scotttish True Crime Stephen Richards Stephen Richards Author True Crime

You know, in a society where children just about have to seek parental permission to sit on Santa’s knee, the word ‘paedophile’ should send more shivers up your spine than the word ‘druggie’.

~ Stephen Richards

Stephen Richards Jimmy Holland Scotland Crime Scotland Hard Men Scottish Hard Bastards Scottish Prison Sieges Scotttish True Crime Stephen Richards Stephen Richards Author True Crime

Mags seemed to attract trouble wherever she went. The Raploch Estate in Stirling was a nice backdrop, a middleclass place to live and bring up your kids until the scourge of drugs took a grip of its sons and daughters, like any other quiet township. The more the people needed drugs, the rougher and more violent the place became.

~ Stephen Richards

Stephen Richards Drug Addiction Jimmy Holland Scotland Crime Scotland Hard Men Scottish Hard Bastards Scottish Prison Sieges Scotttish True Crime Stephen Richards Stephen Richards Author True Crime

The junkies had themselves a field day, they didn’t care for the safety of the overseas tourists, no sir. They would stop at nothing. Some tourists were left bloodied and battered on the sacred ground of the Wallace Monument, minus their video cameras and the likes. The camera’s were soon sold to a fence in the Raploch for pennies, compared to the actual price it was worth, then the junkies didn’t waste much time getting to Big Mags’ door with the £20 that they had got from the local fence in the nearby neighbourhood.

~ Stephen Richards

Stephen Richards Drug Addictgion Jimmy Holland Scotland Crime Scotland Hard Men Scottish Hard Bastards Scottish Prison Sieges Scottish Tourism Scotttish True Crime Stephen Richards Stephen Richards Author True Crime

Brian ‘The Tax Man’ Cockerill - While I’m mentioning drug dealers, I have to give a mention to a man hated by the peddlers of soul destroying stuff, big Brian ‘The Tax Man’ Cockerill (AKA as Scot’s Brian), born on 16 December 1964 in Coatbridge, in Lanarkshire, at 6ft 3in, with 23 stone of rock solid muscle, his awesome power has made him a truly terrifying force in Britain’s underworld. A walking colossus, anyone who gets in his way and tries to stay there had better be ready for the hiding of their life.

~ Stephen Richards

Stephen Richards Brian Cockerill Drug Abuse Drug Addiction Jimmy Holland Scotland Crime Scotland Hard Men Scottish Hard Bastards Scottish Prison Sieges Scotttish True Crime Stephen Richards Stephen Richards Author True Crime

As for that Maxine Carr, she could have helped clear up the murders much quicker, but she chose not to grass her lover to the coppers, no one in the criminal world likes grasses, but this isn’t any normal criminal case. Huntley isn’t a criminal, he is a total fucking, monster beast who, if I had my way, I could hang him in Soham town hall for the families to see.

~ Stephen Richards

Stephen Richards Ian Huntley Jimmy Holland Maxine Carr Scotland Crime Scotland Hard Men Scottish Hard Bastards Scottish Prison Sieges Scotttish True Crime Soham Murders Stephen Richards Stephen Richards Author True Crime

The last person to be hanged in Glasgow at the age of 31 was a beast by the name of Peter Thomas Anthony Manuel, he swung from the gallows in Barlinnie Prison on 11 July 1958.

~ Stephen Richards

Stephen Richards Hanging Jimmy Holland Scotland Crime Scotland Hard Men Scottish Hard Bastards Scottish Penal System Scottish Prison Sieges Scotttish True Crime Stephen Richards Stephen Richards Author True Crime

Once the cons were in the cell, they’d pull razors or homemade daggers out and rob the YOs of their trainers, leather jackets or jewellery. You couldn’t placate them; it would be akin to expecting not to be bitten from a Rhodesian Ridgeback whilst petting it! Bar L was full of rough, colourful and out-of-control junkies who wouldn’t think twice about stabbing you or slashing you just to get what you had on your feet to pay for their next hit of smack.

~ Stephen Richards

Stephen Richards Bar L Jimmy Holland Prison Scottish Penal System

This was a new buzz, better than anything I’d tried before. For the first time, I could fight back at others. I’d even fight with a parked car! I was totally kyboshed on these drugs, I didn’t care how many boys were standing outside the pub, I’d run over and fight the lot of them. Even though I came off second best, in my mind, I still walked away a winner. I showed them I wasn’t a little shit-bag that always got battered, not when I had the drugs in me.

~ Stephen Richards

Stephen Richards Child Abuse Childhood Abdrug Taking Jimmy Holland Scottish Child Care Scottish Prison System Stephen Richards Author True Crime

The rush I got from crime was better than that of glue, drink or hash. I loved playing cat and mouse with the local coppers. He Who Dares Wins, the SAS motto, was very applicable to my life then.

~ Stephen Richards

Stephen Richards Child Abuse Childhood Abuse Childhood Traumas Children S Care Home Abuse Jimmy Holland Overcoming Child Abuse Scottish Child Care Scottish Prison System Stephen Richards Author True Crime

Gazing out of the window, the gravel path roared as it was crushed into submission under the wheels of the car that was taking me towards a menacing looking medieval castle with two huge and terrifying turrets that seemingly reached out towards me. I imagined that I was the gravel and the wheels of the car were the social care system.

~ Stephen Richards

Stephen Richards Child Abuse Childhood Abuse Childhood Traumas Children S Care Home Abuse Jimmy Holland Overcoming Child Abuse Scottish Child Care Stephen Richards Author