Gangster ‘punished’ for writing crime book behind bars
A ‘REFORMED’ gangster known as One Punch Doyle has been moved from an open to a closed prison ‘as punishment’ for writing a book about his life and crimes while behind bars, he says.
Paul Doyle, 63, had been housed at Thorn Cross, an open prison in Warrington, as he serves the remainder of a 16-year prison sentence handed to him in 2015 for plotting to flood the north with vast quantities of heroin, cocaine, cannabis and amphetamines worth £300m.
But he has now been moved to a closed Category C prison, HMP Hindley in Wigan, where friends say he has had privileges removed and is ‘on segregation.’
He is ‘being punished’ for a memoir he has penned from behind bars, according to his publishers.
A spokesman for the Ministry of Justice said: “He has moved locations due to breaches of his licence conditions.”
Doyle used his illgotten gains to pay for a comfortable life in a leafy suburb of Altrincham where he raised eleven children in a £800,000 home.
However, between 2012 and 2014, after struggling to meet the £3,000 a month repayments on the mortgage, Doyle became involved in a series of major wholesale drug deals unravelled by surveillance operations involving police across the country which culminated in the raid at the home in 2014.
He has been in prison ever since, although was in an open prison with his release on licence due next year.
It was while he was at Thorn Cross open prison he finalised his book, Surviving The Madness, and spoke to the
M.E.N. about his time as a criminal. In a story we published, he urged would-be criminals to find another path.
Prison sources denied he had been ‘punished’ for the book itself or any of its content, insisting he had breached the terms of his licence by revealing where he was incarcerated, by engaging in ‘financial transactions’ associated with his book and by speaking to the media.
Doyle’s publishers, On Top Media, said: “Paul feels he is being punished for the book being published essentially. “He was taken out of an open prison and is now in Hindley with all his privileges removed. Yet no one has given him an official reason. “He knows it’s because of the book – people seem to be of the belief that he’s glamorising crime but the book actually is about the ups and downs of crime and it’s written in a self-deprecating way. “Spending half his life behind bars can testify to the lows in itself.
“His ultimate goal is for the book to prove that he is capable of going straight and away from crime once he’s released. And more importantly help youngsters see the error of their ways. “He just wants a new chapter in his life, so going backwards in the penal system really is a smack in the face.”
Paul was taken out of an open prison and is now in Hindley with all his privileges removed
On Top Media