A boxing trainer fights dirty with children
Former British featherweight boxer Jimmy Flint was a local hero in his day, worshipped by East End fans as the Wapping Assassin. When he’d finished doing the rounds, he turned to acting (Lock, Stock and Two Smoking Barrels, Casualty) and, in this tense story, he’s loathed, not loved, as boxing trainer and paedophile John Morris. Pcs Benjamin Gayle and Mel Ryder get the call to go to Morris’s home where they find he has been beaten up by Paul Rayner (Lee Ross, who played Owen in EastEnders). Paul’s hauled off to Sun Hill, where he tells the officers that Morris abused him when he went to his boxing club as a boy. But John Morris says he’s never seen or heard of Paul before… And he’s telling the truth; Paul has the wrong John Morris. The police find the right John Morris and they find another of his victims, Martin Wendell (Robbie Gee – Shrimper in Pirates of the Caribbean). DI Neil Manson has joined the investigation but Martin’s is having trouble concentrating on the job in hand. He eventually confides in DC Jacob ‘Banksy’ Banks, revealing that his son Jake has leukaemia. Energised after their talk, Neil focuses on Martin, who’s not keen to give evidence against Morris – until he hears that Morris is still working with children…
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Patrick McLennan is a London-based journalist and documentary maker who has worked as a writer, sub-editor, digital editor and TV producer in the UK and New Zealand. His CV includes spells as a news producer at the BBC and TVNZ, as well as web editor for Time Inc UK. He has produced TV news and entertainment features on personalities as diverse as Nick Cave, Tom Hardy, Clive James, Jodie Marsh and Kevin Bacon and he co-produced and directed The Ponds, which has screened in UK cinemas, BBC Four and is currently available on Netflix.
An entertainment writer with a diverse taste in TV and film, he lists Seinfeld, The Sopranos, The Chase, The Thick of It and Detectorists among his favourite shows, but steers well clear of most sci-fi.