Drug addict who featured in Sky News investigation given second chance by rehabilitation charity
Last week, Sky News revealed that councils are spending half of what they did on addiction treatment services 10 years ago, and the number of drug-related deaths has doubled.
We told the story of Craig Murphy, an addict who had been trying to get into rehab for a decade. After our reporting, a rehabilitation charity offered Craig a place in Oxford. We joined him as he moved into his first safe accommodation in years.
Craig Murphy’s mouth is wide open. Inside is a swab scraping along his cheek. Craig, a crack and alcohol addict, is being tested ahead of admission to rehab.
The swab test will show up any opiates, amphetamine, benzo, cocaine, ketamine and other commonly abused drugs. There is also a urine test for alcohol.
Craig looks a little nervous. Or perhaps it’s the exhausting journey he has to make to get him to the ADAPT Charity in Oxford from his home in Burnley. Or maybe it is neither and this is what a man with a 20-year addiction looks like.
The urine test comes back negative. It confirms what Craig says: that he has been sober for nearly three weeks now.
But the drugs test returns positive. Craig has cannabis in his system.
“You had cannabis yesterday?” I ask. “But you knew that was going to come up in the test?”
Craig looks apologetic. “I made a stupid mistake by smoking some,” he says.
“It’s hard to say no. It was there and I took it. But I’m here now and I know I’m not going to be touching anything.”
He had better not if he wants to keep his place on rehab.
There’s a growing waiting list and the charity has a zero tolerance policy towards drugs and alcohol. From now on, Craig will be randomly tested once a week.
Craig has been searching for a place on a residential rehab for nearly 10 years. Council funding to addiction recovery services has suffered drastic cuts at the same time demand for places and deaths from addiction are going up.
He was offered a six-month placement with ADAPT in Oxford after his struggle was reported on Sky News last Friday.
‘I was dead for a couple of minutes’
Craig will be sharing a house with three other recovering addicts. He has already formed a bond with one of them, Dave New.
He was exposed to heroin as a 16-year-old in care. His mother, a single parent, died when he just 10-years-old. He describes an early childhood moving from home to home in run down coastal towns across southeast England.
The heroin was supplied by a dealer who lived in the same hostel. It was the start of a traumatic battling addiction with almost every drug.
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‘I was dead for a couple of minutes’
“Two weeks before I came up here, I overdosed and ‘died’,” Dave says.
“I ended up injecting heroin mixed with fentanyl and I overdosed. I was dead for a couple of minutes. When I woke up and looked in the mirror my face was blue. My lips were purple.
“I’ve been here 20 days today. I feel great and it’s all because we’re in safe housing, dry housing, where we’re drug tested regularly.”
Dave is 43 years old now. And this is the first time he has been clean for this long.
Drug free accommodation crucial for recovery
And it is why the charity places so much emphasis on providing safe, drug-free accommodation. It is crucial for any chance of recovery, the charity’s CEO Eddie Cobb tells me.
“Over 80% of our clients have experienced homelessness, being put in sheltered accommodation, where there are other addicts using,” she says. “So there’s just no chance, you know, when you’re around when you want to get clean, and you’re surrounded by other people that are using, it’s impossible for them to get clean.”
Craig is confident that he can stay sober this time. He has just been given the keys to his new home.
As we sit on the bed in room number 4, he takes out his phone and shows me photographs of the other hostels where he has lived.
The pictures show seeping sewage, mouldy bathrooms and boarded up toilets. Depressing pictures of neglect and disrepair. Just like the addiction recovery system so many addicts describe.
But Craig’s challenge was not the dilapidated buildings – it was the addicts still taking drugs and alcohol that made his life hell.
“It just feels like I’ve been given something I’ve never been given before,” he says. “And I’m going to take it. And I’m going to use it.”
Craig knows he’s been given a chance thousands of addicts never get. He also knows, it could be his last.
Liverpool have won the Premier League title after a 5-1 victory over Tottenham at Anfield.
Arne Slot’s men did it in impressive style, turning over Spurs in a convincing win.
It was a rocky start for the Reds after Dominic Solanke put the north London side ahead.
However, fortunes quickly changed in the first half as Liverpool scored three times without a response.
Captain Virgil van Dijk (centre) celebrates. Pic: Reuters
Salah on his knees in celebration after the final whistle. Pic: AP
Liverpool’s Harvey Elliott (below) and Jarell Quansah celebrate after full-time. Pic: PA
Slot cheers after the full-time whistle. Pic: AP
In the second half, it took until the 63rd minute for Mohamed Salah to make it 4-1 before a fifth followed.
The Reds have won the title in manager Arne Slot’s first season in charge, and move level with fierce rivals Manchester United on 20 league championships.
But it makes them arguably the most successful English club ever as they have won more European Cup or Champions League titles.
Liverpool captain Virgil van Dijk told Sky Sports after the final whistle: “It’s special and it’s something that we don’t take for granted. It’s amazing.
“A lot of emotions before the game, during the whole week, but we got the job done and we (are) truly deserved champions of England. (Liverpool is) the most beautiful club in the world and I think we deserve all of this. Let’s enjoy the next couple of weeks and let it sink in.”
Liverpool’s Kostas Tsimikas poses with a Premier League trophy cut out. Pic: Reuters
Manager Arne Slot and his team after the final whistle. Pic: AP
Slot took over last summer from Jurgen Klopp, who guided them to their previous and maiden Premier League title triumph in 2020, when the COVID-19 lockdown saw matches played behind closed doors.
He is the first Dutch manager to win the Premier League and the fifth man to do so in a debut campaign after Jose Mourinho, Carlo Ancelotti, Manuel Pellegrini, and Antonio Conte.
Speaking to Sky Sports he said: “They [the players] did an outstanding job today. The main job was to win. Everyone said we had got it already. But we had to make sure and we got over the line.”
Several players, including Alisson Becker, Trent Alexander-Arnold, Virgil van Dijk, and Mohamed Salah, played leading roles in both the 2025 and 2020 campaigns.
Van Dijk and Salah recently signed new contracts extending their careers at the club.
Mohamed Salah takes a selfie with fans after scouring the fourth Liverpool goal. Pic: AP
Fans at Anfield during the game. Pic: AP
Fans in the stands at Anfield before full-time. Pic: Reuters
Liverpool will have to wait until the final game of the season – at home to Crystal Palace on 25 May – to be presented with the Premier League trophy.
It will be the first time the club’s fans will have seen their side lift the top-flight title in person since 1990.
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Two pro-Palestinian demonstrators have thrown red powder on Tower Bridge – just moments before leading runners in the London Marathon went past.
The protesters were arrested on suspicion of causing a public nuisance and remain in custody, said the Metropolitan Police.
A video shared by Youth Demand, which is calling for a trade embargo on Israel, shows two people jumping over a barrier that separates spectators from the race course.
The pair, wearing t-shirts that say “Youth Demand: Stop Arming Israel”, are then seen standing in the middle of the road on the bridge.
Pic: LNP
They throw red powder in the air as an official marathon car goes past displaying the race time.
A motorbike with a cameraman on board continues along the route, while a second motorbike stops and one of the riders gets off and pushes the pair out of the way, just before the men’s elite runners pass.
Several police officers then jump over the barrier and detain the pair, the footage shows.
There appeared to be no impact on the marathon.
More than 56,000 participants were expected to take part in the 26.2-mile race through the capital.
Sabastian Sawe of Kenya won the men’s elite race in a time of two hours, two minutes and 27 seconds, while Ethiopia’s Tigst Assefa shattered the women’s-only world record in two hours, 15 minutes and 50 seconds.
Assefa beat the previous best of two hours, 16 minutes and 16 seconds set last year in London by Kenyan Peres Jepchirchir.
Read more:
Sky’s Beth Rigby running marathon in honour of ‘dearest friend’
Badenoch does not rule out local coalitions with Reform
Pic: LNP
The Metropolitan Police said in a statement: “At around 10.38am, two protesters from Youth Demand jumped over barriers at Tower Bridge and threw red paint on to the road.
“Marathon event staff intervened to remove the protesters from the path of the men’s elite race which was able to pass unobstructed.”
The force added that they were “quickly supported by police officers who arrested the protesters on suspicion of causing a public nuisance”.
The Met said the paint “appeared to be chalk-based” and was not expected to “present a hazard to runners yet to pass this point”.
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