Blood on the Streets by Robert Jeffrey

Author:Robert Jeffrey
Language: eng
Format: mobi
ISBN: 9781845025144
Publisher: Black & White Publishing
Published: 2012-07-23T04:30:00+00:00

MCAULAY, JOE

This associate of Paul Ferris played a role in the conviction of his boss on gunrunning charges at the Old Bailey, in 1998.

The sleeper train between London and Glasgow is something of a tradition. If the train selected, leaving from Glasgow Central or Euston, had a bar, that made it all the better to while away some hours as the carriages rocked their way to the destination. If there was no bar, there was always the steward with a friendly miniature or two or a suitable ‘carry oot’ could form an indispensable part of the luggage. It was normal for passengers on the late night InterCity service to enjoy a nightcap or six – it helped you sleep!

The staff were well used to such habits and it took some doing to get into trouble with the railway police. But McAulay managed it. Blind drunk, he was being abusive to other passengers and, when his night train halted at Preston on its way to Glasgow, the Transport Police were called. They got a shock when they looked in the troublesome passenger’s holdall. Inside, they found a .22 Ceska handgun.

On this particular night, Paul Ferris was staying in London with associates and, while McAulay languished in a cell in Preston, Ferris made frantic phone calls to try to find out what was happening to him. He told the cops he was just trying to let his friend know how he was getting on. He said he was down in London trying to get that year’s hot Christmas toy, a Buzz Lightyear doll. He also told the police that McAulay had a gun because someone was hassling his daughter. Ferris was right to be worried. McAulay coming to the attention of the police was bad news.

A senior police officer had been working for months trying to get evidence that Ferris was involved in gunrunning. He told the Evening Times that ‘the link with McAulay was vital. It showed that there was a system going on.’ The police allegation was that McAulay had been sent to London by Ferris and there he bought a gun. Aware of the risk in trying to get through security at Gatwick, he had decided to take the train home. In Preston Crown Court, he admitted that the weapon, which had a silencer fitted, and the thirty-nine rounds of ammunition in his luggage were intended to cause ‘fear or violence’. The judge said he was plainly carrying the gun for someone else. The nightcaps McAulay had consumed so vigorously on his way north were expensive – they provided a valuable piece of the jigsaw for the police hunting Paul Ferris, gunrunner.

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