TV doc sheds battle to end
Harrowing look at major police op
THE absolute control of Rochdale’s criminal underworld was portrayed in harrowing detail in an episode a new BBC documentary,
The Detectives, which follows a specialist Greater Manchester Police unit trying to bring down the now-notorious ‘Adam’ OCG in the town, aired on Monday, with a sickening 999 call from a tree surgeon who had just witnessed the gang nearly chop off a workmate’s hand following a road rage incident.
It then leads DS Martin Soutter and his officers to discover a dark underworld where members of the gang bribed witnesses, groomed children and used extreme levels of violence to assert their authority on the Newbold Estate.
The second episode, airing on Tuesday night, saw the team progress their investigation and followed the axe attack victim Cameron Brooksbank through court.
Its most stomachchurning moment comes in the form of a distressed phone call.
“They are going to f***ing kill my husband,” a woman can be heard pleading in desperation.
“They have my son... they are going to kill him. Give me back my son, I beg you.”
The audio is an excerpt of a phone call made from a man, who had been dealing drugs for the gang but stopped, and his wife.
Gang members had just kidnapped the man with his son from a barbershop, after putting a £5,000 bounty on head.
The gang then uses his phone to call his wife to tell her they have forced her husband and child into a car.
“Listen, your kid is at the end of the road.
“Come pick him up at the end of the street,” the gang member says.
“[Your husband] is sorting some things out and he needs to pay it back.” his
The wife replies: “What do you mean he is at the end of the street?
“What the f*** are you doing?”
“There’s been a problem,” the gang member replies, before the woman interjects with: “Where are you now?!”
After being given the location, the woman can be heard running towards the car.
She says: “Mum, can you ring the police?
“Just give me back my son. Give me my f***ing kid.
“I beg you! Don’t put him in the road like that you b ****** s!”
It then transpires the gang had dumped the three-year-old in the road.
He was unharmed.
A police helicopter is then deployed to locate the car, with the victim inside and eventually found