Living Amongst the Beasts

One of the criminal underworld's most notorious armed robbers and mastermind behind the 2007 $5 million heist at the Verizon business center in King's Cross London, Terry Ellis speaks about his experience's in the UK prison that house's some of its most heinous prisoners.

Whilst the value of the hardware was estimated to cost $5 million, the value of the information contained within it was estimated at $100 million if it fell into the right hands, this made it one of the biggest data heists ever in Europe.

Not like most mainstream jails, HMP Grendon is the only full Therapeutic prison in the UK, housing 228 men who have committed some of the worst crimes imaginable, from rapists to murderers and child killers to paedophiles. HMP Grendon might be different but it certainly isn't easy bird.

As a young criminal working his way through the ranks, Terry's biggest strength and greatest asset was violence; a product of the UK care system in the 70's, using violence he established himself within the criminal fraternity which eventually saw him as the top man behind some of the country's biggest heists.

He would soon realise that his biggest strength for all those years, was actually a weakness inside Grendon. Violence in a therapeutic community would see him returned to mainstream prison, it was inside Grendon that he learned his normal response of violence would be worthless.

Sitting and listening to the animals around him, about what they did and who they did it to, as a father himself having to listen to someone's justification about the crimes they committed against children, fighting the instinct to deliver some kind of justice to these people as you might do on the out. Would you be able to elevate above this?

All of the tools at Terry's disposal were not going to help him through this, he had to learn to live amongst the beasts.

This is the beginning of his story of redemption, his journey away from a life of criminality, the life that had already seen so many years lost due to incarceration, his story about life inside a therapeutic prison, his journey through HMP Grendon.

Terry Ellis - Living amongst the beasts.