‘I was going to cut his throat’: Ex-criminal enforcer turned bishop reveals how he planned to kill rapist
“I should have been dead many times,” says Pastor Mick Fleming.
The 57-year-old has survived several attempts on his life after working as an enforcer for the criminal underworld.
He narrowly avoided being killed in a drive-by shooting when he felt bullets “whizz” past his body. “I think that was the closest I came to be being murdered,” Mick tells Sky News.
He also survived his own attempt to kill himself when he pointed a gun at his head, pulled the trigger but the weapon failed to fire.
“I dropped the gun and I cried,” he says.
“It was the first time I’d cried since I was little boy.”
After years of violence and drug use, Mick says he had grown to “despise” himself.
He suffered two traumatic events growing up in Burnley, Lancashire, that sent his life spiralling into crime and substance abuse.
Aged 11, he says he was raped by a stranger in a park as he walked to school.
Mick Fleming pictured as a boy
“I felt a hand over my mouth and I was dragged into this bandstand,” Mick says.
“I was petrified. I still sometimes think about it. It hasn’t gone away.”
The next day, Mick was told his 20-year-old sister Ann had suffered a heart attack and died in her father’s arms.
“My dad came through the front door and shouted: ‘Come down, your sister’s dead’,” he says.
“It was cold and blunt… then he broke down. He was a tough guy my dad, but a nice man. I’d never seen him cry.”
Mick Fleming says he began dealing drugs as a teenager
Life of crime
Mick says he went “inward” and started imagining carrying out crimes like pickpocketing “to escape the real world”.
Soon after, he started stealing and dealing drugs as a teenager before working as an enforcer collecting debts for criminals.
He admits there was “a lot of violence” and that his family described him as “demonic” at that time. It was not until 2009 that his life changed.
Mick says he spent years dealing with drug abuse
Armed with a gun wrapped in a plastic bag, Mick went to collect a debt from a man outside a gym. But when he walked towards his target, he realised the man was holding hands with two little girls – and there appeared to be “light shining off their hands”.
“It was a really surreal moment,” he says. “I felt sick. I started to cough and splutter and I couldn’t see.
“I felt this thing in the pit of my stomach. It was a horrible, dark feeling – like a sickness.
“I got back in the car and drove round the corner into this little industrial unit and pulled over. I was throwing my guts up. There was blood everywhere. I looked like I’d been stabbed.”
Mick was an enforcer for the criminal underworld
It was at this point that Mick tried to shoot himself. After he failed, he was later admitted to a psychiatric unit.
“I’ve never had a drink or used drugs since,” Mick says. “I was on a road to recovery from that point on.”
Meeting his rapist – and the plan to kill him
Mick had been clean of drink and drugs for about a year when he says, by chance, he met the man who raped him.
He spotted his attacker in a McDonald’s restaurant. The man was drunk and Mick bought him a cup of tea.
“I knew it was him,” Mick says. “He didn’t know it was me.”
Mick arranged to meet the man the next day with the intention of killing him.
“I went back with a knife in my sock,” he says.
“I was going to cut his throat. I was going to kill him. Everything was building up inside me.”
Mick Fleming is known locally as Pastor Mick
As Mick walked towards the man, he says he imagined killing him, with “clear, vivid pictures” of the brutal act in his mind.
But instead of carrying it out, Mick says he sat down and listened to what the man had to say.
“I didn’t say anything,” Mick explains. “In that moment I got this real understanding. I thought: ‘I’m not going to live in your sin.’
“People say resentment is like drinking poison and expecting the other person to die. That’s what I’d been doing.
“I didn’t grow to love the guy but, in the end, I can honestly say I didn’t hate him.”
Mick says the man died about two years later.
Becoming a priest
After leaving the psychiatric unit, Mick went on to achieve a degree in theology from the University of Manchester, overcoming difficulties he faced with dyslexia.
Now ordained as a priest and recently consecrated as a bishop, he is known locally as Pastor Mick and runs a charity called Church On The Street, helping people struggling in the cost of living crisis.
Among its services, the charity provides food, mental health support and Citizens’ Advice – and has recently had to start helping families pay for funerals.
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Church helping families in Burnley
“At the moment, it’s far, far worse than the pandemic,” he says. “It’s ordinary people with children who are in dire straits.”
He is also concerned about the impact of the cost of living on mental health and suicide risk.
“I’ve got NHS mental health teams working with us in our building. People can’t afford to have a funeral for their loved ones. It’s horrendous. We pay an undertaker to do the funerals for us and then I do the services for free.”
William and Kate met Pastor Mick during a visit to his charity last year
Meeting William and Kate
Mick’s work was recognised by royalty when Prince William and Kate visited the charity in January last year.
William has since written the foreword to Mick’s book – with a TV series about his life in the works – and he was invited to Kate’s Christmas carol concert in December.
“I got to pray for them which was quite an honour,” Mick says. “I really felt they’re going to need prayers.”
Mick believes William and Kate understand the problems people are facing with the cost of living despite their royal lifestyles.
“Obviously they haven’t experienced it but you don’t have to dead to be an undertaker, do you?” he says.
“They’ve got the ability to open doors and ask questions that need to be asked and point fingers in right directions.”
Mick – who was married with three children during his time as a criminal enforcer – says he has repaired relationships with his family over the years.
“I wasn’t a good father,” he says. “I have to live with that fact.
“I’d want it to be better with my children, that’s the truth. But it’s all right – my family have come to accept me, and love me, and care for me. It’s the best I can do.
“Some of it is my regret around my children. I wish I could turn the clock back with that but I can’t so I accept it and do the best with it.”
Anyone feeling emotionally distressed or suicidal can call Samaritans for help on 116 123 or email jo@samaritans.org in the UK. In the US, call the Samaritans branch in your area or 1 (800) 273-TALK
Police investigating a fire at a north London house owned by Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer are also looking into whether it is linked to two other recent blazes.
The Metropolitan Police said on Monday evening that detectives are checking a vehicle fire in NW5 last week and a fire at the entrance of a property in N7 on Sunday to see whether they are connected to the fire at Sir Keir Starmer’s house in the early hours of Monday morning.
The prime minister is understood to still own the home and used to live there before he and his family moved into 10 Downing Street after Labour won last year’s general election. It is believed the property is being rented out.
Counter-terrorism police are leading the investigation as a precaution, the Met said.
The blaze damaged the entrance to the house, but there were no injuries, the force said.
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The entrance to the house was damaged by the fire. Pic: LNP
Counter-terror police are leading the investigation. Pic: LNP
A statement from the Metropolitan Police said: “On Monday 12 May at 1.35am, police were alerted by the London Fire Brigade to reports of a fire at a residential address.
“Officers attended the scene. Damage was caused to the property’s entrance, nobody was hurt.
“As a precaution and due to the property having previous connections with a high-profile public figure, officers from the Met’s Counter Terrorism Command are leading the investigation into this fire. Enquiries are ongoing to establish the potential cause of the fire.”
A police cordon and officers, as well as investigators from London Fire Brigade, could be seen outside and at one point, part of the street was cordoned off to all vehicles.
London Fire Brigade said firefighters were called just after 1am, and the blaze was out within half an hour. It described the incident as “a small fire outside a property”.
Pic: PA
Emergency services were deployed to the scene in north London. Pic: PA
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Sir Keir expressed his gratitude to the police and fire services via his official spokesman, who said: “I can only say that the prime minister thanks the emergency services for their work, and it is subject to a live investigation. So I can’t comment any further.”
On Monday, Sir Keir made a major policy speech on immigration, promising to bring down net migration by the end of this parliament with a system that is “controlled, selective and fair”.
He did not clarify how far he wants figures to fall, only saying numbers will come down “substantially” as he set out plans in the government’s Immigration White Paper, including banning care homes from hiring overseas.
A power outage caused major travel disruption on London’s Tube network on Monday, stretching into rush hour.
The Elizabeth, Bakerloo, Jubilee and Northern lines were among the routes either suspended or delayed, with several stations closed and passengers forced to evacuate.
A spokesman for Transport for London (TfL) said there was an outage in southwest London for “a matter of minutes” and “everything shut down”.
National Grid confirmed a fault on its transmission network, which was resolved in “seconds”, but led to a “voltage dip” that affected some supplies.
The London Fire Brigade said the fault caused a fire at an electrical substation in Maida Vale, and it’s understood firefighters destroyed three metres of high-voltage cabling.
The scene in Piccadilly Circus as passengers were evacuated
That came just weeks after a fire at the same substation, which saw elderly and vulnerable residents among those moved from their homes.
But today’s fire – between Cunningham Place and Aberdeen Place – is understood to have involved different equipment to the parts in the 29 April incident.
TfL’s chief operating officer Claire Mann apologised for the disruption, adding: “Due to a brief interruption of the power supply to our network, several lines lost power for a short period earlier this afternoon.”
Passengers told Sky News of the disruption’s impact on their plans, with one claiming he would have had to spend £140 for a replacement ticket after missing his train.
He said he will miss a business meeting on Tuesday morning in Plymouth as a result.
Another said she walked to five different stations on Monday, only to find each was closed when she arrived.
Lines suspended and stations shut – as it happened
“Only on the last station did I find out it was a power outage affecting the entire Underground, after I approached ticketing staff,” she said.
“Again, no announcement made. So I looked for bus alternatives. In total, I spent two hours stranded in central London. Horrible experience.
“I feel bad for people who possibly missed their flights.”
TfL staff have said they are working to restore the entire network, with some disruption extending into Monday night.
UK
Minister does not rule out ‘supermax’ jails for most dangerous offenders following alleged Rudakubana attack on prison officer
“Supermax” jails could be built to house the most dangerous offenders following a spate of alleged attacks on staff, the prisons minister has said.
James Timpson told the Politics Hub with Sophy Ridge that “we shouldn’t rule anything out” when asked if the most dangerous criminals should be placed in top security prisons.
It comes after Southport triple killer Axel Rudakubana allegedly threw boiling water from a kettle at an officer at HMP Belmarsh on Thursday. Police are now investigating.
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Before that, three prison officers were also allegedly attacked by 28-year-old Hashem Abedi – the brother of Manchester Arena bomber Salman Abedi – with hot cooking oil and “improvised knives”, potentially made from a baking tray.
Speaking from HMP Preston for a special programme of the Politics Hub, Mr Timpson told Sophy Ridge: “We inherited a complete mess in the prison system.
“Violence is up, assaults on staff is up. But for me, we shouldn’t rule anything out.”
He added: “What we need to do is to speak to our staff. They’re the experts at dealing with these offenders day in, day out. “
Mr Timpson – who was the chief executive of Timpson Group before he was appointed prisons minister last year – said the violence in prisons was “too high”.
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He continued: “The number of people when you have prisons are so full, and the people in there are not going to education or into purposeful activity.
“You get more violence and that is totally unacceptable. Our staff turn up to work to help turn people.
“They want to turn people’s lives around. They didn’t turn up to work to get assaulted. It’s totally unacceptable.”
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Reflecting on the crisis facing the UK prison system ahead of the government’s sentencing review, Mr Timpson said a major problem was the high rate of reoffending, saying “80% of offending is reoffending”.
He said people were leaving places like HMP Preston “addicted to drugs, nowhere to live, mental health problems – and that’s why they keep coming back”.
Asked whether every prison had a drugs issue, he replied: “100%.”
“If we want to keep the public safe, we need to do a lot more of the work in here and in the community. But also we need to build more prisons.”
Put to him that making more use of community sentences – thought to be one of the recommendations in the government’s sentencing review – might be considered a “cushy option” compared to a custodial sentence, Mr Timpson said: “There are some people in this prison tonight who would prefer to be in prison than do a community sentence – but that’s not everybody.
“Community sentences need to be tough punishments outside of prison, not just to help them address their offending behaviour, but also the victims need to see punishments being done too and for me, technology has a big part to play in the future.”
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