Villa park ‘Grass’ leads to injustice?

It was football derby day in Birmingham and Aston Villa nicknamed the Villains beat Birmingham City after a late wrong referee decision gave Villa a penalty. While the media are concentrating on the wrongly gave penalty, Supatrax focus on the decision the Police made on the day to protect the name of a former Villain.

The penalty decision, that James Milner calmly converted, was a wrong one. A decision by West Midlands Police on the day is also in question.

James Milner stepped up to convert the penalty giving the Villains 3 points, a chance at Champions League qualification and he was also awarded Young PFA Player of the Year on the evening. The decision by West Midlands Police to ‘very swiftly’ take down a banner stating that ‘Danny was a grass’ has raised a more questions in some circles then the dodgy referees decision.

The banner held up by Birmingham City fans referred to ‘Black Danny’, a former Aston Villa top boy, who now writes novels and promotes. His website reads:

The notorious Black Danny aka Danny Brown was at the front line of football violence, for over two decades his life was dominated by those violent Saturday afternoons, following his beloved team Aston Villa F.C. and his firm the C-Crew.

Danny was jailed in 1981 for one of the most infamous football gang related incidents of the last 40 years.

Aston Vila and Birmingham, like most football clubs across the country have a firm – a crew of supporters that represent their team and fight against other teams firms to prove who is the most dominant. The Aston Villa C-Crew and Villa youth love the opportunity to meet with their locals rivals; The Zulus, the Birmingham City notorious firm. The most infamous of theses battles was in September 2006 which resulted in a number of Villa and Birmingham hooligans being sent to prison.

Supatrax spoke to local sources who told us that the banner was not referring to this incident, it referred to an event which resulted in the death of a young Villa fan following the game last time Birmingham played Villa at Villa Park. Danny stood up in court and gave evidence to the fact that there was rivalry between Birmingham and Villa fans football gangs, which referred to the defendant and passengers in the car which mowed down Aston Villa fan Christopher Priest.

It was said that the driver of the vehicle at the time was Lee Mockble, 21, from from Hall Green. He was sentenced to life in prison, with a minimum sentence of 12 years, after being found guilty of Christopher’s murder. Birmingham City fans wore T-Shirts calling for justice for Lee Mockable, who they claim did not murder Christopher Priest.

Danny’s evidence, as a former self confessed football thug with good connections in the football underground, went a long way to proving this could be a football gang related killing.

A Supatrax source said:

“Danny has lost a lot of credibility after standing up and giving evidence in favour of the Queen’s court.

“After the case he came and spoke to a few of the lads and tried to justify what he had done, saying the Police had leaned on him and that’s why he did it.”

Danny’s website clearly states his dislike of the thought of going back to prison:

What made me see the light at the end of the tunnel and say this isn’t the life for me anymore was watching other C-Crew members going in and out of prison, over the years.

Going to prison is something I’m not really proud of, it cost me my freedom, something I didn’t even realize I had until I lost it.

Our source went on to say:

“He had no need to be there (in court), why did he have to give evidence? He’s a Grass – simple.”

Police informants are a vital tool to the Police in combating crime. In 2009 it was revealed that Scotland Yard paid £1,863,074 in rewards for information about criminals operating in London and across the nation during the last financial year – a decrease on the £2,131,786 paid in the previous 12 months (must be due to the recession). But it still means the Police are handing over over £5,000 every day of the year, some of it to people with strong links to crime themselves.

These figures shine a rare light on one of the most secretive areas of modern policing. Senior officers have said despite huge advances in surveillance technology, information from people remains a key weapon against the most dangerous villains.

They have said informants are very cost effective when compared with arduous surveillance operations and other tactics.

Figures revealed a further £156,469 was spent on “informant related expenditure”, believed to include travel, accommodation and meals for police handlers.

It was also revealed that £3,389,860 was spent on secret surveillance operations against organised criminal gangs and terrorists.

The figure was made up of a £1,636,365 bill for covert operations, £489,604 for covert terrorist operations and £1,263,981 on covert running costs.

What’s your opinion of Police informers? Would you inform? Would you expect someone to inform if the crime involved you or a family member? – Is helping the Police a good or bad thing?

Send your views and comments to info@supatrax.com