00:00:05
NARRATOR: In Scotland
there is a high security prison that's home to one of
the UK's most feared prisoners.
00:00:13
NORMAN SYLVESTER: He's somebody
who just seems addicted to violence and doesn't even
understand the consequences
00:00:19
of what he does. NARRATOR: Murderer
James O'Rourke has a reputation
for being extremely
00:00:25
volatile and dangerous. GRAEME PEARSON: O'Rourke's
a danger to anyone who's around about him.
00:00:31
A firework that could
go off at any time. NARRATOR: At the age of 22, he
killed a man by caving his head
00:00:38
in with a slab of concrete. NORMAN SYLVESTER: No
matter how bad things got, there was nobody ever going
to be as violent as O'Rourke.
00:00:48
NARRATOR: Even in
prison, he attacked inmates, prison officers,
and even a prison boss.
00:00:58
NORMAN SYLVESTER: He
is a risk to anyone within the prison system. NARRATOR: O'Rourke
dominates prison wings
00:01:04
wherever he goes and
isn't afraid to take hostages to get what he wants. Fellow inmates
consider him to be
00:01:21
the most dangerous
and violent convict in the UK prison system. NORMAN SYLVESTER: There hasn't
been anyone with the same level
00:01:28
of propensity of violence
who's been incarcerated in the prison system. NARRATOR: O'Rourke has
a violent reputation,
00:01:40
one that has followed
him to every prison he was locked up in. GRAEME PEARSON: O'Rourke
has been involved
00:01:48
in excessive violence, which
has resulted in his conviction of another murder. NORMAN SYLVESTER: The
attack was savage.
00:01:55
It left a 20 inch
scar in his neck. He almost died. And there may never be
anyone like him again.
00:02:06
[dramatic music] NARRATOR: Glenochil Prison. This high security jail
holds nearly 700 prisoners.
00:02:34
ANTHONY GIELTY: I think
Glenochil is one of the most dangerous prisons in Scotland.
00:02:39
There's been several
riots within Glenochil that were serious. There was one riot that at
one point they had to get SES
00:02:46
and they breached
walls and stuff. NARRATOR: Glenochil has
held many notorious inmates,
00:03:01
including a double rapist
and the murderer known as the world's
end serial killer.
00:03:11
ANTHONY GIELTY: Because of the
nature of the prisoners housed there and their crimes and
their propensity for violence,
00:03:18
it has quite a history. It's holding
dangerous prisoners. NARRATOR: The biggest thug on
the Scottish prison circuit
00:03:25
is James Bernard O'Rourke,
known by many as Porky. GRAEME PEARSON:
Someone like O'Rourke
00:03:47
is a real time bomb in prison. Someone who is capable of
either choking someone to death
00:03:56
or slitting a throat. There's no doubt
that in the history of the Scottish penal system.
00:04:01
There's never been anyone
as violent or dangerous as James O'Rourke. NARRATOR: No one is safe from
this convicted killer's anger.
00:04:10
Certainly not his
fellow prisoners. NORMAN SYLVESTER: There
was a horrific sight that
00:04:15
greeted the prison officers. In the short space of time that
the two men were in the cell
00:04:19
together, O'Rourke had
bound the victim's hands and then he made
a makeshift weapon
00:04:25
from the sheets, which he then
used to strangle the victim. [dramatic music] One of the incidents involved
senior prison officer.
00:04:49
He was stabbed in the stomach
with a makeshift knife, which had actually been
made from a coat hanger.
00:05:08
NARRATOR: James O'Rourke
grew up in East Glasgow during the 1980s. GRAEME PEARSON: We're in
the area known as Craigneuk.
00:05:16
Craigneuk was on the
periphery of the economy as far as North Lanarkshire
and Glasgow was concerned.
00:05:23
So it was a deal
of unemployment, but people worked hard when
they got the opportunity.
00:05:28
And although those opportunities
were few and far between, many people took
advantage as they saw it.
00:05:38
Entering the 1990s, Glasgow
had become a changed place. Instead of being the
second city of the empire,
00:05:45
it had been devastated
in the loss of jobs, closure of the shipyards,
the end of the steelworks,
00:05:52
and a great deal
of unemployment. NORMAN SYLVESTER: Glasgow
and the West of Scotland
00:05:56
was a particularly
violent place. There was a lot
of violent crime. NARRATOR: The streets of
Glasgow were dangerous.
00:06:04
And it seems 22-year-old
James O'Rourke was often at the center of it. GRAEME PEARSON:
O'Rourke was a name
00:06:11
that came up as a man who
was regularly at the scenes of known violence. You would get a regular
report in the morning
00:06:19
that there'd been a suspected
gang fight in an area. NORMAN SYLVESTER: Statistically
speaking, there was actually
00:06:26
more murders and violent crime
in the greater Glasgow area than in Belfast in
Northern Ireland.
00:06:32
And it was almost like a
daily routine of reporting on murders and violent crime.
00:06:38
At the same time, drugs
entered the scene. And that had a really
devastating impact on the West
00:06:44
of Scotland and Glasgow. And particularly men
but more and more women too became involved in
the abuse of alcohol and drugs.
00:06:54
NARRATOR: The city and its
streets were run by gangs. NORMAN SYLVESTER: They varied
from the kind of organized
00:07:00
crime groups that
were highly organized at high levels of drug
dealing and violent activity
00:07:04
to the more street gangs
involving teenagers. But generally, the
combination of both
00:07:11
led to a lot of
pointless violence. GRAEME PEARSON: The area
was changing in the 1990s.
00:07:19
Unemployment was rife
and many of the working families here were
finding things difficult.
00:07:26
Added to that, local youths
had engaged in gang fights and were becoming
notorious for the fighting
00:07:33
that they brought
to the village. NORMAN SYLVESTER: Gangs
didn't want to lose face in front of other guys.
00:07:38
They'd been targeted
for violence. So often the violence
as they're erupting, often murders, the
original reasons
00:07:45
could become quite obscure. But ultimately, it was all to do
with turf wars over drug trade.
00:07:52
NARRATOR: James O'Rourke
was a member of one particularly aggressive gang. GRAEME PEARSON: Many of those
who were part of the gang
00:08:00
culture came from
families that were chaotic and had no sense
of purpose in life.
00:08:08
It was only a matter
of time before they ended up in the jail. NORMAN SYLVESTER:
A lot of the gangs
00:08:13
would take the names
of the families that were associated with. You had the Lyons, the
Daniels, you had the Thompsons.
00:08:19
Other gangs would take their
names from areas of the city where they operated. For example, you
had the Cumbe, who
00:08:25
were a gang that
operated in Cumberland Street in the Gorbals and
similar types of names.
00:08:29
NARRATOR: It was the
violence between these gangs of youths that would
spill onto the streets.
00:08:36
And the police turned up. There was no trace. But they could see debris
lying in the street.
00:08:41
They could maybe
see a vandalized car and would hear off the
record about various people
00:08:48
being involved in it. O'Rourke would have been
named as one of the people that had been at the scene.
00:08:56
But nobody would give evidence
against them at that stage. SOHOM DAS: The psychological
processes that run in gangs
00:09:03
are actually pretty much
identical to toxic masculinity. Seen as extreme weakness to
have any mental health problems
00:09:11
or to express your own emotions. It's all about appearing
to be completely hard.
00:09:15
The other thing that keeps
the gang structure alive is loyalty. So gang members must do what
their senior tells them to do.
00:09:23
They're never allowed
to do anything that would be detrimental to
the gang, such as cooperate
00:09:27
with the police. And these rules are enforced
with violence if necessary. So this means that the
individual members might be too
00:09:35
scared to eventually step away. NARRATOR: In 1992, turf wars
had erupted between rival gangs
00:09:44
in the area of
Craigneuk, one led by petty criminal
Neil Cairney, another that included James O'Rourke.
00:09:54
GRAEME PEARSON: In
the 1990s, this area here was the subject
of numerous gang fights and group disorders.
00:10:01
An animosity was
prevalent amongst the men who lived in this area. NORMAN SYLVESTER:
There was a tit
00:10:06
for tat feud between
two rival crime factions in that area of the city. NARRATOR: Tensions
between the gangs
00:10:14
were reaching boiling point. NORMAN SYLVESTER:
O'Rourke was an associate of a man called William
Gray and a number of others.
00:10:23
And on the other side,
you had Neil Cairney in his various associates. Gray had been involved
in an incident
00:10:30
around May '92 where
he had threatened Cairney with a shotgun. Cairney decided to
get some revenge.
00:10:37
And a few days later,
he went to Gray's house and from there a
fight broke out. GRAEME PEARSON: Neil Cairney
was assaulted and brought
00:10:47
to the ground in
this avenue here and he was struck
with concrete blocks, stones, and pieces of wood.
00:10:56
NORMAN SYLVESTER: He suffered
injuries to the head, to the body, and didn't survive.
00:11:02
He was pronounced dead
a short time later. I think what shocked people
was the level of violence
00:11:11
in what was a residential area. You had people living
at their homes, going about their
everyday business.
00:11:18
Suddenly you had two gangs of
grown men attacking each other. Falling Cairney's death, a
murder investigation launched,
00:11:26
and within a space
of a few days, there was a large number
of people arrested. Subsequently, Will
Gray and James O'Rourke
00:11:34
were charged with murder. NARRATOR: O'Rourke had
been in and out of prison many times before this.
00:11:41
But despite his reputation
for repeated violence, this was the first time
he had been up for murder.
00:11:51
On October 2, 1992, James
O'Rourke was found guilty. NORMAN SYLVESTER: James O'Rourke
was given a life sentence.
00:12:03
ANTHONY GIELTY: Leaving
a criminal background in the gang syndicates,
going to prison
00:12:07
is almost a rite of passage. It is almost an initiation. You've been seen, you've been
tried, you've been tested.
00:12:13
You've not broke. And how you hold
yourself within prison is very important as
well for how you are seen
00:12:19
and how you represent
yourself going out. NORMAN SYLVESTER: There's
no doubt that had he
00:12:23
served the sentence
without any controversy, without any
misbehavior, he would have been eligible for
parole and would have
00:12:30
been released a long time ago. But instead he chose
to become Scotland's most dangerous prisoner.
00:12:37
NARRATOR: On the
streets of Glasgow, O'Rourke had been
a dangerous thug. Now he wanted to
become more than that.
00:12:53
THOMAS LEONARD
ROSS: We often hear of violence within prisons. People are slashed.
00:12:58
Sometimes boiling water
is thrown on people. But it was the first time
I'd come across a situation
00:13:03
where somebody had died
as a result of an assault within the prison. NARRATOR: In 1992,
22-year-old James O'Rourke
00:13:18
was sentenced to life
in prison for his part in the brutal murder of
rival criminal, Neil Cairney.
00:13:29
JAMES TREADWELL: The profile of
the average inmate in Scotland wouldn't look entirely
dissimilar to that
00:13:34
in the United Kingdom. Low educational attainment. It's quite a culture
of gang violence
00:13:40
and violent confrontation. NARRATOR: O'Rourke was
sent to HMP Glenochil while they decided what to do
with such a violent prisoner
00:13:50
and where to send him. Initially when a prisoner
comes into jail, the first risk
00:13:56
assessment that is
done on them, you look at what are they charged with. Is it a violent offense?
00:14:01
Are they associated
with a gang or have they been in prison before and
fought with other prisoners?
00:14:08
So you're looking at
all of that to make an informed decision as to
whether that prisoner can
00:14:13
share a cell or not. THOMAS LEONARD ROSS: He
was in solitary for months. Probably they would take
the view if that was
00:14:22
been successful, why move him? But people who they
assess to be problems, they move them about because
they are worried they're
00:14:31
making connections and
associating with the wrong ones and scheming. And so they just keep moving
the real dangerous ones.
00:14:39
NARRATOR: O'Rourke
was well known in Glasgow so was
therefore known to many of his fellow prisoners.
00:15:16
HMP Glenochil is a
high security prison housing some of the country's
most dangerous prisoners.
00:15:25
ANTHONY GIELTY:
My name is Anthony Gielty from Edinburgh,
a former prisoner at HM prison Glenochil.
00:15:31
I spent part of a 10
year prison sentence there back in 2005, 2006 period. I was attacking prison officers
and prisoners all the time.
00:15:44
I got to the stage
where I was classified as a dangerous prisoner. I remember one time I
attacked a prison officer
00:15:50
and they broke my wrist here
and this bone was coming out. So they had to take
me out to hospital.
00:15:54
And they put a brace on. And on this brace,
I took the metal out as soon as I got
back from the hospital,
00:16:00
sharpened it, and then used
it to attack another prisoner. NARRATOR: William had been a
prison officer for 10 years
00:16:24
before specializing
in rehabilitation. An incident in 1997 was going
to put all of William's training
00:16:35
to the test, and it would
involve James O'Rourke. On Sunday, January 5, 1997,
William did a friend a favor
00:16:43
and covered his shift so
he could go to a wedding. William was an hour
into his shift when
00:17:08
he was approached by an inmate. James O'Rourke and
a fellow inmate had trapped William
and Karen in a cell.
00:17:59
It had all been a setup. GRAEME PEARSON: There
needn't be a reason for someone like O'Rourke
taking someone hostage.
00:18:28
It could be as
naive as I'm bored and I don't see anything
happening this week. And on the spur of the moment,
take someone hostage to enliven
00:18:38
his experience at that point. NARRATOR: Glenochil Prison
had a serious hostage situation with O'Rourke
at the center of it.
00:19:59
JAMES TREADWELL:
I've been in prisons and I've been party to and
witnessed hostage situations
00:20:04
and people being taken hostage. It's incredibly serious when
that happens in a prison.
00:20:12
One of the first
things that happens is all the normal functioning
of that prison closes down.
00:20:18
The place where it's
happening is locked down. You can't leave if
you're a staff member
00:20:23
and you're on that
part of the site. You're going to stay there
for the rest of the day.
00:20:29
Prison officers are
going to put on riot overalls and protective gear. Negotiators are going to start
to talk to those prisoners
00:20:36
to try and establish
what it is that they want and how they can resolve
the situation successfully
00:20:41
without anybody
being hurt or harmed. NARRATOR: Within minutes,
a negotiating team
00:20:49
arrived at the cell. When we look at
O'Rourke's hostages, we have to wonder what's going
through their mind at the time.
00:21:09
Somebody with his
history of violence and his propensity
towards aggression, what's the final
outcome going to be?
00:21:15
It's not inconceivable that
he might actually turn on them and end their lives. The three prisoners
involved in this hostage
00:21:39
taking are notorious. Throughout the
night, negotiations have continued
with the three men
00:21:43
holding the two staff
hostage in a single cell in Glenochil's C Hall. NARRATOR: After around 14
long hours of negotiation,
00:21:53
William attempted to
reason with O'Rourke. Finally, around 18 hours after
first being taken hostage,
00:22:39
William was released. NORMAN SYLVESTER: They
were both unharmed, but obviously it was a terrible,
traumatic incident for both.
00:23:10
NARRATOR: Following
the hostage situation, William and nurse Karen
were offered counseling
00:23:15
to get over the incident. O'Rourke had six years
added to his life sentence. The very fact that O'Rourke
would take a prison officer
00:23:24
hostage to me suggests
that either he's completely indifferent
about his future,
00:23:28
he literally doesn't
have the ability to think about the
consequences of his action,
00:23:33
or he's just resigned to
spending a life in prison. And that might sound
strange to some of us,
00:23:38
but actually for people
who are very antisocial and who are at the top of
the criminal hierarchy,
00:23:44
they can actually thrive in
prison because their behavior is accepted, their violence.
00:23:50
They might be the alpha males. They might be the ones
with status in the prison and they get respect
from other prisoners
00:23:55
by doing this very
kind of thing, by acting out against authority. NARRATOR: O'Rourke was serving
a life sentence for murder,
00:24:04
but he believed the trial back
in 1992 had not been fair. In 2001, having
moved prison again,
00:24:13
he decided he needed to
make the authorities listen and used human beings as
bargaining chips once again.
00:24:24
JAMES TREADWELL: Prisoners
learn quite often to be very, very manipulative. You can manipulate
people through threat,
00:24:29
through coercion,
through violence. But you can also
manipulate people fantastically by
getting them to do what
00:24:35
you want by being charming. Oh, go on, guv. I'm your best mate. You know me. You want to do this for me.
00:24:42
Come on, I do you
lots of favors. It's only a little
thing to be asking. And of course, that
goes on continually
00:24:48
where people are
working cheek by jowl in very close proximity. NARRATOR: Having got
prison guards on side,
00:25:10
O'Rourke yet again made
them his human weapon. NORMAN SYLVESTER: O'Rourke
hit the headlines again
00:25:18
when he took a
male prison officer hostage at Aberdeen Prison. That hostage taking
lasted almost 20 hours.
00:25:28
He received yet another prison
sentence at the high court. And on this occasion,
he was sentenced
00:25:34
to eight years imprisonment. It feels like O'Rourke's
violence evolved over time.
00:25:41
The hostage taking incidents,
he was in complete control. He was autonomous
in his decision.
00:25:46
So it feels like this
expression of violence really was embedded
into his way of thinking
00:25:52
and his way of living. NARRATOR: Since receiving a life
sentence for the murder of Neil
00:25:56
Cairney in 1992, O'Rourke
had been in and out of most of the Scottish prisons. In 2004, he arrived
in Kilmarnock.
00:26:59
In June 2004, O'Rourke
was still settling in to Kilmarnock Prison
when he decided
00:27:05
he needed to make himself
known to the prison's boss, Michael Guy. NORMAN SYLVESTER: James O'Rourke
was in the exercise yard
00:27:27
at Kilmarnock Prison and
he confronted Michael Guy and stabbed him in the stomach
with a makeshift knife.
00:27:36
Mr. Guy was seriously
injured and required hospital treatment. Thankfully, we had
a full recovery.
00:27:44
But this particular
incident allied with one earlier that year at the High
Court in Edinburgh resulted
00:27:50
in O'Rourke getting
another eight year prison sentence added on
to the 14 years he had already accumulated, not
to mention the life sentence.
00:28:01
NARRATOR: O'Rourke was certainly
achieving his aim of becoming a so called top dog.
00:28:06
But now in a position of power,
he wasn't going to let it go. In June of 2004, James
O'Rourke had savagely
00:28:40
attacked the assistant
director at HMP Kilmarnock, leaving him near death. The very fact that O'Rourke
would even contemplate
00:28:51
attacking the main warden,
the main boss of the prison shows firstly that he does not
care about the consequences
00:28:57
of his actions and probably
that he wants status within the prison population. NARRATOR: Once
again, O'Rourke had
00:29:05
used violence to cement
his position at the top of the prison hierarchy. Prisoners and staff
remained very wary of him.
00:29:18
VANESSA FRAKE-HARRIS:
Assaults on the staff unfortunately are-- I don't want to say it's
part of prison life,
00:29:25
but unfortunately they do
happen and they are very common. And you have to learn how
to react when prisoners
00:29:35
are somewhere up
here and in your face to try and bring them down. And that is the skill
of a prison officer.
00:29:43
NARRATOR: Following
the attack, O'Rourke was again removed from the
main prison population.
00:29:55
The only way he
can express himself, the only way he can resolve
any level of conflict
00:29:59
is by using violence. NARRATOR: Despite not having
been on his best behavior, O'Rourke was eventually granted
an appeal for the murder
00:30:07
in 1992 of gang
leader Neil Cairney. Ironically, he was having a
hearing into his miscarriage
00:30:17
of justice case. He escaped from his cell and
attacked a prison officer, seriously injuring him.
00:30:24
To me it just seems
like an opportunistic kind of impulsive act. He's got a potential
chance of freedom now.
00:30:30
He's actually outside of prison. So he just tries his luck. NARRATOR: This
attempted escape failed,
00:30:35
as did O'Rourke's appeal. He was going nowhere. NORMAN SYLVESTER: Following
2004, we didn't hear much more
00:30:43
from James O'Rourke until 2019. NARRATOR: In 2019, O'Rourke
was in HMP Kilmarnock.
00:31:07
O'Rourke's reputation
got him what he needed, but his dominance was
suddenly shaken up
00:31:12
with the arrival of fellow
Glaswegian Thomas Peacock. NORMAN SYLVESTER: Thomas
Peacock was also serving
00:31:21
a lengthy life sentence. He'd carried out a
motiveless attack on a man in the town of Barrhead,
just outside Glasgow.
00:31:29
Peacock himself would be quite
feared as a result of that. NARRATOR: O'Rourke, however,
did not fear this new arrival.
00:31:42
Suddenly, without warning,
O'Rourke attacked Peacock. NORMAN SYLVESTER: O'Rourke
approached him and slashed him
00:31:48
on the neck, which
resulted in a 20 inch scar and he almost lost his life. Ironically, Peacock himself
was serving life for murder.
00:32:02
In this occasion, he was
a victim of the violence. It's believed that they
had a bit of a fallout.
00:32:08
There'd been a bit of
a personality clash. But it's not clear
why James O'Rourke
00:32:13
attacked Thomas Peacock. NARRATOR: With the massive
scar, Thomas Peacock now had a constant
reminder of O'Rourke
00:32:23
literally around his neck. NORMAN SYLVESTER:
Assured then that as far as O'Rourke was concerned,
there was no limitation
00:32:31
or there was no-- to who he would attack. It could be prison
officers, prisoners,
00:32:36
people serving life
for murder, or people just serving short terms. GRAEME PEARSON:
O'Rourke will have
00:32:42
been institutionalized by now. Whether he realizes it
or not I would doubt. He probably thinks
he's his own man
00:32:50
and he's created his own future. But he's merely
reacted to everything that's been around about
him for this last decades.
00:33:15
NARRATOR: O'Rourke
was found guilty of the attempted
murder of Thomas Peacock at Glasgow High Court.
00:33:22
Nine years were added
to his sentence. NORMAN SYLVESTER: It's all
about him imposing himself
00:33:29
on the prison, backing
up his reputation, showing that he was a
prisoner to be feared,
00:33:35
and that other new
kids on the block who might want to impose themselves
that he was still the main man.
00:33:41
GRAEME PEARSON: Given
his lifestyle in prison and the reputation
that he's built,
00:33:45
he's got to be harder
than anybody else or he could end
up being a victim. He no doubt will
have enjoyed the fact
00:33:55
that he's been identified as one
of the most dangerous prisoners in the Scottish prison service.
00:34:01
There's no doubt he's dangerous. His inability to
control his temper and to control his
violence is evidenced
00:34:10
in the way he's conducted
himself over the last decades. NARRATOR: At the age of 50
and following numerous attacks
00:34:17
on both prison
officers and prisoners, James O'Rourke was once
again back in HMP Glenochil.
00:34:29
It could be that O'Rourke
prefers life in prison. Because on the outside, he's
a small fish in a big pond.
00:34:36
But in prison, he's respected. He's well known. He's a big fish in a small pond.
00:34:57
NORMAN SYLVESTER: It may
be simply the realization that he'll never get out. And so there's nothing to fear.
00:35:02
What difference is
it going to make if he gets another nine years? What difference will it make if
he gets another life sentence?
00:35:08
So there's no deterrent or
restraint on his own behavior. NARRATOR: In 2021, it
seemed that O'Rourke
00:35:19
had made a new friend,
30-year-old inmate Dean Ramsey. THOMAS LEONARD
ROSS: He was someone
00:35:25
who wasn't serving a
particularly long sentence and wasn't expected to
cause the staff any problems
00:35:30
or to be falling out
with other prisoners. He was essentially
a model prisoner. NORMAN SYLVESTER: He and
Ramsay had been having
00:35:42
quite an amicable conversation. Within 10, 15 minutes,
prison officers discovered
00:35:47
Dean Ramsey fighting for life. NARRATOR: In Glenochil Prison,
Scotland, inmate Dean Ramsey
00:36:02
had been found in
James O'Rourke's cell lying motionless on the floor. It seemed that yet
again O'Rourke's temper
00:36:10
had got the better of him. THOMAS LEONARD ROSS: They
had been walking together in the public part
of the hall, had then
00:36:16
gone into Mr. O'Rourke's
cell, and that young man was found sometime later. O'Rourke had
gone into the cell,
00:36:25
tied Ramsey up, and then
strangled him with a bed sheet. VANESSA FRAKE-HARRIS: Prisoners
have very little things
00:36:33
to work with in prison. But what they do have is
ingenious ideas of how to make weapons out of anything.
00:36:40
NARRATOR: As O'Rourke
had left the cell, he was seen shaking hands with
fellow inmates and officers
00:36:45
and then declared that
he had hurt someone. NORMAN SYLVESTER:
He actually admitted
00:36:50
to one of the prison officers
that he'd hurt someone. A bit of an understatement.
00:36:54
The prison officers,
again, would think there'd been some sort
of assault taking place.
00:36:58
Of course, when they
went into the cell, they found Mr Ramsey dying. He'd been strangled.
00:37:03
There was also blood staining. He was fighting for his life. We were told that during
the strangulation,
00:37:09
he suffered a
horrific brain injury. It was a horrific sight that
greeted the prison officers.
00:37:15
And that assault took
place within a space of a few minutes. NARRATOR: O'Rourke was
immediately restrained.
00:37:21
It seemed that Ramsey
was clinging to life. NORMAN SYLVESTER: He
was rushed to hospital
00:37:30
and died two days later. There some suggestion that
Ramsey may have offended him
00:37:36
in some way or slighted him. It appears to have been a
completely motiveless crime.
00:37:41
NARRATOR: O'Rourke was
charged with murder and transferred
to various prisons before ending up in HMP Shotts.
00:37:49
Thomas Ross, KC, was
appointed as his lawyer. THOMAS LEONARD ROSS: I had
never met Mr. O'Rourke before
00:37:57
and I had an initial meeting
with him at that time. So the first meeting was in
the local prison in Glasgow.
00:38:04
And really, it was an
introduction and a discussion as to what was likely to
happen in relation to the case.
00:38:11
NARRATOR: O'Rourke explained
the motives behind the attack. THOMAS LEONARD ROSS: I suppose
you would say he was down beat.
00:38:23
He was probably
a bit pessimistic as to whether he might ever
be released from custody.
00:38:29
But beyond that, he was very
polite and easy to deal with. Now the preliminary hearing has
tendered a plea of not guilty.
00:38:40
There was a suggestion that he
might argue that he had acted in self defense, because he'd
said to the police at interview
00:38:49
that the deceased had
come at him with a blade. Dean Ramsey appears to
have made some sort of remark
00:38:55
to O'Rourke, maybe
a bit of banter, maybe light lightheartedly. Ramsey was a much younger man.
00:39:00
He's maybe made some reference
to his age or of the time that he served in prison.
00:39:05
But the remarks
attributed to O'Rourke afterwards seem to
suggest that he considered
00:39:10
Ramsey to have
been disrespectful and that had to be dealt with. THOMAS LEONARD ROSS:
To throttle somebody
00:39:19
with a piece of material to the
point where they can't breathe and they take a heart attack,
it wouldn't be instant.
00:39:30
Presumably there would be
a struggle of some sort. So if he did all that
himself, then clearly
00:39:37
a very powerful individual. NORMAN SYLVESTER: He was still
not expressing any regret
00:39:45
but was explaining to
the police officers that he didn't
really mean to do it. Given the fact he tied the
person up and used some fairly
00:39:53
horrific violence, his
explanation to the police was, I didn't mean to do it. It was an accident.
00:39:58
I didn't mean to go that far. But in reality, the scale of the
violence used was horrendous.
00:40:11
NARRATOR: During the hearing,
the details of the murder were revealed. NORMAN SYLVESTER: We're told
that during the strangulation,
00:40:18
he suffered a
horrific brain injury. He told one of the
prison officers, he thinks I'm a dafty, but
he's not thinking that now.
00:40:29
NARRATOR: O'Rourke had called
his mom to tell her the news. NORMAN SYLVESTER: It was
almost as if he was describing
00:40:44
a kind of routine act. These conversations are recorded
by the prison authorities
00:40:50
and it was more
evidence of his murder. What I took from it was he
didn't want his mom hearing
00:40:58
on the BBC News or something. He wanted to be the
first one to tell her that was another problem.
00:41:05
NARRATOR: To the
surprise of his defense, O'Rourke pleaded
guilty to murder. The judge declared that O'Rourke
had the worst criminal record
00:41:15
he had ever encountered. NORMAN SYLVESTER: He described
the murder of Dean Ramsey
00:41:23
as a violent execution
and made the comment that in all his years
as a trial judge,
00:41:29
he had never come
across anyone with such a terrible criminal record
and such a terrible record
00:41:37
for violence. GRAEME PEARSON:
In 2022, O'Rourke was convicted of the
murder of Dean Ramsey
00:41:47
and was sentenced to a
further life sentence with a recommendation
of more than 20 years.
00:41:54
NARRATOR: O'Rourke
had been given his second life
sentence, keeping him behind bars for over 75 years.
00:42:02
THOMAS LEONARD ROSS: Why
did he change his plea from not guilty to guilty? The answer is I don't know.
00:42:08
He was already serving
a sentence of life imprisonment for murder. He was serving other sentences.
00:42:14
And therefore, it might
simply have been the case that he thought he
would be kept in custody
00:42:20
forever whether he was convicted
of this particular crime or not. And for that reason, he didn't
see the point of spending seven
00:42:28
or eight days sitting in court
listening to evidence when he could plead guilty, go back to
prison, and in practical terms,
00:42:36
it would make no difference
to when he was released. NORMAN SYLVESTER:
There didn't appear
00:42:41
to be any remorse or regret,
fear of any consequence of his actions. It was almost like
another day at the office,
00:42:48
another day in prison. NARRATOR: James O'Rourke
will remain behind bars in a maximum security prison
for the rest of his life
00:43:10
with no option of parole. NORMAN SYLVESTER: The one
thing that differentiates O'Rourke from a lot
of other prisoners,
00:43:17
a lot of high profile
prisoners enjoy the reputation. You do get the impression
that often being a celebrity
00:43:26
prisoner who enjoys the
notoriety is somebody who just seems addicted to
violence and doesn't even
00:43:34
understand the consequences
of what he does. It's something that is
just ingrained in him, that
00:43:39
no matter what
anybody tried to do, he would continue to be violent. GRAEME PEARSON: He must
sit on a cold night
00:44:05
and realize he's in an
impossible situation largely of his own making. And that must be a really
depressing place to be.
00:44:17
NORMAN SYLVESTER:
There's no doubt that there hasn't been
anyone with the same level
00:44:21
of propensity of violence
who's been incarcerated in the prison system and there
may never be anyone like him
00:44:27
again. [dramatic music]