31 August 2023 , 04:17
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Years before Kirkdale native Richard Caswell became a notorious underworld villain, his neighbours thought of him as "one of the quiet lads of the estate".
One former barrister also described the man nicknamed "Will", after his apparent likeness to popstar Will Young, as "one of the most polite clients I have ever met" in 30 years of practise. But behind his low-key exterior, Caswell possessed a scheming mind, a seemingly endless appetite for risk and a cold ruthlessness.
The now 41-year-old doorman turned high level drug dealer was this month jailed for his role in an audacious and violent raid on a stash-house controlled by a major Liverpool crime network, early in the morning on May 23, 2020, reports Liverpool Echo. During that raid, on Croxdale Road West in West Derby, a man almost lost his arm when it was slashed down to the bone, before Caswell and his partners in crime escaped with cocaine worth more than £1million.
EncroChat messages intercepted by police later revealed that Caswell had tipped off Jason Cox, head of the notorious Salford based Cox crime family, about the stash-house and they two had devised the robbery plot with Jason's brother, Craig Cox, and associate Ben Monks-Gorton.
Caswell is now a target in prison (MEN MEDIA)Caswell's lawyers told Manchester Crown Court he is now a target in prison after double-crossing the Liverpool firm - who had in fact been supplying both him and Cox with wholesale quantities of cocaine. But a look at his past offending reveals that taking major risks is completely in character.
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Caswell first hit headlines when he was charged over an extraordinary underworld feud between club owners in the city. Unlike the usual tit-for-tat shootings or arson attacks, this clubland row involved powerful car bombs fashioned from industrial fireworks stuffed into cheap, stolen motors exploding across the city in 2003 and 2004.
The court heard Caswell was not initially involved, but offered his services after the first explosion outside the popular 051 Club in the city centre on September 20, 2003. Caswell had a grudge against the then owner of the club, John Lynch, after Mr Lynch sacked him from working as a doorman due to an assault charge.
Eager to assist Mr Lynch's enemies, the then 22-year-old was linked to three massive explosions. The first was on October 18, 2003, outside the home of Mr Lynch's younger brother in Sandfield Park, West Derby. Reports from the time described how the massive blast left pieces of the vehicle embedded in the ceilings of nearby houses and shattered windows.
The car blown up by Richard Caswell close to a police station in Tuebrook in 2004 (PA)Six homes were damaged, including one which needed more than £12,000 of structural repairs. One local said at the time: "That bomb terrified us all, this is a nice, quiet street – nobody expected something like that." The following day another huge blast rocked Bulford Road, Fazakerley, close to another address linked to Mr Lynch's brother.
Merseyside Police launched an investigation codenamed Operation Thornapple, which involved a call to limit the sale of fireworks nationally. The crooks behind the feud decided to respond. On May 13, 2004, an enormous explosion detonated outside West Derby Road police station in Tuebrook.
That blast was at the time the biggest bomb to explode on the British mainland since the IRA ceasefire. Bomb disposal experts said more than 20 shock rockets were used, easily "enough to kill". The brazen attack on the force led to senior officers warning residents living close to police stations in Merseyside to be on guard.
But detectives secured a major breakthrough after DNA analysis of the twisted wreckage of the vehicles used in the bombings matched Caswell. He was duly arrested, and to add to his woes police found a haul of firearms was at the house he was living in at Newman Street, Sandhills.
Caswell later admitted driving the cars stuffed with fireworks to the scene, although he claimed someone else had ignited them. That case was seemingly closed with the crook remanded in custody in Walton Prison awaiting his sentencing date. However, Caswell had been plotting from behind bars.
On March 14, 2004, prison officers at HMP Liverpool raised the alarm after spotting a cherry picker close to the perimeter walls of the jail. Around the same time, it was noticed that Caswell was missing. Before the audacious escape bid could come off he was detained in the grounds of the prison and thrown into segregation.
In April, 2005, Caswell was jailed for 17 years for his role in the bombings and possession of firearms. Liverpool Crown Court heard he was not the brains of the operation, but a "gofer" carrying out the bidding of gangsters involved in criminality "over his head".
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But his lengthy jail sentence failed to stop Caswell becoming an increasingly sophisticated and well-connected criminal. The messages recovered from EncroChat revealed he was himself moving multi kilo quantities of heroin and cocaine.
He was also considered, by bosses at the fearsome firm he double crossed, as a man who could connect them with other buyers of wholesale quantities of Class A drugs. It was in his chats with Jason Cox, when his ruthlessness and apparent casual willingness to use violence became clear.
In one conversation about the plan to rob the stash-house, Cox asked if a courier for the firm they intended to double cross would lead them to the drugs. Caswell replied: "I would even be up for killing him if needs be." In another conversation, Caswell dropped Cox a message asking: "Would you be up for a kidnapping?". The exchange that followed made clear they were referring to the daughter of a gangland rival.
Caswell told Cox: "When the lockdown over and they start working again we kidnap lads birds daughter, we want 2 mil they get 100kg at a time". Cox replied that they "just need a car with blue lights on so they could pretend to be Police Officers, approach her, and bundle her into the vehicle".
Caswell and the Cox brothers were sentenced on August 18. Judge Patrick Field, said of the raid: "It was a meticulously executed crime, committed by greedy and desperate criminals, and demonstrated, I suppose, that there is no honour among drug traffickers."