BAD SAMARITANS

Prison hardmen to give lags advice

By Philip Whiteside, 05/07/2009

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ONE of Britain's most notorious crime godfathers has become an "AGONY AUNT" - counselling lags at a tough prison under a scheme backed by the Samaritans.

Upset prisoners needing a shoulder to cry on sought "confidential emotional support" from feared gangland figure Terry Adams.

Adams and a dozen more hardnuts, including several KILLERS, were recruited to lend sympathetic ears.

Others included Leigh Stocks - who stabbed six people at random, killing one - and thuggish Sajid Zulfiqar, part of a gang who kicked a computer worker to death.

The team, officially known as Listeners, are supposed to be friendly faces that other inmates can relate to and spill out their troubles.

The scheme is part of a Samaritans-backed service intended to reduce the risk of lags harming or killing themselves.

But a source at Long Lartin maximum-security nick told the News of the World: "It sounds funny but it defies belief that such dangerous people are being offered as a shoulder to cry on.

Violent

"Some people in here have a really hard time of it. The idea they will find it easier after talking to Terry Adams or any of these villains is a joke."

The Leicestershire jail houses up to 460 Category A prisoners, many doing time for extremely violent offences including terrorism.

Adams, who headed a notorious London crime clan dubbed the Adams Family, was banged up for 20 years in 2007.

Among others on the Listeners team were:

Vengeful HAQ NAWAZ, who arranged for a house to be torched resulting in two children's deaths.
Heroin dealer IAN MACHIN, who fatally stabbed a rival to take over his business;
Notorious jail escaper KEITH ROSE, who killed the wife of a store boss he kidnapped;
Drug smuggler HAMIM SOYLU, jailed over a £30million heroin haul;
Clawhammer nut ROY CROSS, who battered a love rival in the head;
Violent IAN SHIRLEY, who attacked his ex-girlfriend with a knife;
Gangster PAUL FARR, who tried to hack off a businessman's hands in an £150,000 extortion bid.

Sources said Adams and the others may have jumped at being Listeners as the role allowed them to move around freely and meet anyone who asked to see them.

Cheltenham Samaritans, the branch which works with Long Lartin, said new Listeners were chosen and trained once a year.

A phone advice line is also available but it is believed some prisoners would rather talk to one of their own kind than an anonymous voice.

Last night the Prison Service said: "Listeners are chosen for their ability to empathise with other prisoners' issues."

JAIL NEEDS SAMARITANS TOO

YOUR article Bad Samaritans: Prison recruits hardmen to give lags advice (above) acknowledges that some prisoners in Long Lartin "have a really hard time of it" but questions the choice of inmates providing emotional support under Samaritans' prison listener scheme.

All inmates selected for the scheme are security cleared by the prison service as safe and appropriate to interact with other prisoners. They then undergo a rigorous selection and training programme run by Samaritans.

Prisoners are seven times more likely to take their own lives than the UK average, but the tone of your article mocks the idea that prisoners need emotional support. It also implies that prisoners don't deserve Samaritans' service.

Samaritans offers non-judgemental support, without discrimination, to anyone experiencing emotional distress.

Linda Pyatt, Prison Support Coordinator, Samaritans

Your comments

This article has 5 comments

and one more thing. these are people here who are cat b and c prisoners and are there for their safety and have no specific sentence. they need to do courses before they are realeased. they are not all gangsters who are trying to escape. and people who have escaped in the past realised they had no where to go because the prison is in the middle of no where so have gone bck. you can get 10 years for that so why bother. you have no idea so why judge and say these awful things. i agree some people there are evil but not all so dont judge please

By grace phillips. Posted July 7 2009 at 12:33 AM.

i dont think you realise how hard it is for all those men in that prison. do you realise how many men in there are there because of misscariages of justice and are innocent? well there are alot. and how daer all of you judge all these men. prisn is a scary place. alot of people there are innocent and alot are there because of mistakes they made which they are now paying for. it could easily happen to any one. one mistake can ruin your life and these men are paying the price. and has for having freedom to walk around and deal drugs is rediculous. its a maximum security prison. these men cant come bck from a visit without being strip searched. they have their rooms searched constantly. prison officers go in with filthy dogs which jump all over their beds and they compleetly turn their rooms upside down and then just leave. they are behind ;locked bars constantly and even visitors have to have finger prints taken and have to get sniffed by dirty dogs. these men are paying for what they have doine and in alot of instances not done. prison is a scary place where all your basic human rights have been taken off you. if they want a personto talk to then what on earth is wrong with that. how dare all you people say these things. are you so narrow minded you begrudge these men having a shoulder to cry on!!!!!!!!!!!!

By grace phillips. Posted July 7 2009 at 12:29 AM.

Listeners?? What a joke! Does the HMPS live on another planet or something? These people are Cat A for a reason and thats not because they are sympathetic caring people but because they're dangerous manipulative escape risk high end gangsters. Giving them the opportunity to move around more freely is a recipe for disaster. Cat A cells and wings are mobile phone proof with regular searches etc what if one of these so-called inmate samaritans was able to move around to other wings where security is less and use someone elses mobile to arrange maybe another escape or give out orders to their gang members, just an example!
Seems like another move to gain some priviledges or get de-catagorized to Cat-B, I mean if you were asked if talking to them was good for you, would you say no? of course not, you wouldn't dare!!

By Anonymous. Posted July 5 2009 at 7:50 PM.

Lags being Samaritans, they get out of there cell to visit others for a coffee or drugs, do they give a dam about who are vunerble prisoners, listeners they call themselves.
sealed lips untill they leave prison, then open to bribe for the prisoners they know about.
Prison authorities wake up and stop and look also the listener its all secret from prison officers whats said.
Boo Hoo i have done something wrong i want to talk this is the cry for a listener to get extra treats of the vunerbal.

By Samantha. Posted July 5 2009 at 12:51 PM.

this lot are only doing this to get a laugh at the idiots who come to them. cat.A /prisoners, they should be in a nusery watching citv............

By james fulton. Posted July 5 2009 at 10:08 AM.

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