00:00:04
[music playing] NARRATOR: In England,
some of the world's most dangerous and violent prisoners
are locked behind bars
00:00:12
in Category A prisons. It's like a jungle. You know, you've
got all the killers,
00:00:17
all the front page crimers. You're going to see them
all in the Category A's. NARRATOR: One of the most
notorious is Gary Vinter.
00:00:26
He towers over. most people at
6 foot 7 and has a nasty temper. There's many like him
in the Category A's.
00:00:34
But he's off the Richter scale. Somebody will die very soon. NARRATOR: He violently
murdered two people.
00:00:44
He is a psychopath,
brutally violent. And what terrified me the most
is that he just didn't care.
00:00:52
He has no remorse for
anything that he's done. I hate him. I want to go in that
room and torture him.
00:01:02
NARRATOR: While
in prison, Vinter stabbed a fellow
inmate in the eye and gave another
serious brain damage.
00:01:09
He's lost all hope. He doesn't care no more
what happens to him. NARRATOR: Locked away for
life with nothing to lose,
00:01:17
he's now a thug for hire. He's like a ticking time bomb. He could go off at any time.
00:01:24
NARRATOR: He is one
of the most feared men in the English prison system. He split the end of the toilet
brush, so it sharpened up.
00:01:33
Just had that plan to go in
and kill the nonce bastard. NARRATOR: Long Lartin
is one of the highest
00:02:02
security prisons in England. So all the [indistinct speech]
is here, HMP Long Lartin,
00:02:07
housing some of the most
dangerous and notorious prisons in the country. It's considered to be one of
the most dangerous prisons
00:02:17
within the prison system. If you cross the paths
with the wrong person on the wrong day, they're
going to seriously hurt you.
00:02:25
I've seen a lot of people
get seriously hurt in prison. It is a very dangerous
and volatile place.
00:02:32
Most men on those landings in
those Categories A's are either seriously violent
or armed robbers,
00:02:39
murderers, men that have
been on the front page of the newspapers. NARRATOR: And one of
those is Gary Vinter.
00:02:52
Gary Vinter has
now become something of a notorious prisoner in
the British prison system.
00:02:59
He's very, very
well-known, in part for being one of
the said founders of a group of prisoners
called Death Before Dishonor.
00:03:06
It depends who's
got the biggest gang. If, like, there's five
members of a gang now,
00:03:10
and one of their rivals
turn up, those five will come sprinting
on the yard now,
00:03:14
hack you and stab you to death. I can imagine
something like Gary, 6 foot 7, first
thing in the morning,
00:03:23
the door gets cracked open,
and then Gary comes in. And then he's attacking
you with a weapon.
00:03:31
NARRATOR: Over
the last 26 years, Vinter has had regular run
ins with his fellow prisoners,
00:03:36
including ex-armed
robber Yammy B. His face was boiling. His hands were clenched.
00:03:43
I swear, I thought he
was going to swing. He is an imposing presence,
very intimidating, and has
00:03:50
lost the plot completely. He's quite a handsome guy. And when I think of some of the
other criminals that I've seen,
00:03:58
he doesn't stand out as
someone that you would expect to be a double murderer. NARRATOR: Vinter grew up in
Middlesbrough in the Northeast
00:04:11
of England during the 1980s. The city's high crime rate makes
it one of the most dangerous
00:04:18
cities in the United Kingdom. Being sent to prison was
seen as a badge of honor for youngsters that grew
up in the Northeast,
00:04:28
like ex-ex-criminal
Ricky Killen. A lot of us in the area
wanted to go to prison.
00:04:34
That was the mentality
of us at that age. Everyone was drinking,
taking drugs, fighting on a regular basis.
00:04:45
And it was just the
norm in the area. And this is what a lot of the
kids were seeing growing up.
00:04:52
And there was no one there
to put them on the right path and deter them from going
down a life of crime.
00:04:58
They were sort of glamorized. NARRATOR: The streets
were rife with trouble. And it followed 26-year-old
local thug Vinter everywhere.
00:05:12
Vinter's background
is in some ways both remarkable
and unremarkable. He starts off working as a
railway signalman in Teesside.
00:05:24
NARRATOR: Even at work,
Vinter was violent. In 1995, after a fight
with a co-worker,
00:05:30
Vinter was then
transferred from Teesside to Grangetown Railway Depot. One of his colleagues at the new
job was 22-year-old Carl Edon.
00:05:42
They were working together,
working as signalmen on the railway, working
in a signal box, which
00:05:47
is quite a closed, confined
environment where essentially they're responsible for
rail passenger safety
00:05:54
and moving the signals. It's been suggested
that they were friends and fairly close associates.
00:06:04
NARRATOR: Away from work, Carl
had a long term girlfriend, Michelle. I fell in love with
Carl straightaway.
00:06:12
It was a love at first sight. As soon as we first
met, it was a bond. NARRATOR: Carl and Michelle
had a two-year-old daughter
00:06:21
named Sophie and were
expecting their second child. We looked for
clothes and stuff,
00:06:29
had a look at all
the baby stuff. My mom bought the pram for me. Yeah, very excited.
00:06:38
NARRATOR: The loved-up
couple were also planning on getting married. I wanted a little white dress,
the fairy tale one, not so big.
00:06:50
We didn't think about
that much forward yet. But I wanted to get
married in a church.
00:06:55
It's every girl's dream. NARRATOR: On
Wednesday, August 2, 1995, at around 2:00 PM, Carl
left home and headed to work.
00:07:10
We were all talking
and planning the wedding, what we were going to do. I was really excited at
becoming Mrs. Edon, Carl's wife.
00:07:23
NARRATOR: Later that
evening, Michelle waited for Carl to come home. But then, there was
a knock at the door.
00:07:31
It was the police. They come in the front room. They were just staring
and staring at me.
00:07:37
And I was looking at them. And they was going silent. They said there's been
an accident at work
00:07:44
with a colleague. Before they said anything, I
knew something was serious. I just throw myself back
and when they said it,
00:07:53
I just screamed,
screamed the house down. NARRATOR: Carl had
been viciously attacked
00:08:03
by colleague Gary Vinter. And then they
told me he was dead. I just run outside,
just run out.
00:08:15
I felt as though me
insides was dying. Vinter stabbed
Carl Edon 37 times. He punctured every
single one of his organs.
00:08:28
So you've got to wonder what
his mind state was at the time. He wasn't the
sort of individual
00:08:34
that anyone would
have sought out a violent confrontation with. But he did a really
significant amount of damage
00:08:41
in what was quite a
brutal, violent offense. They say Carl
wouldn't have suffered.
00:08:51
But I don't believe it. Because there was blood marks. Carl was trying to
crawl to the door.
00:09:03
It's suggested it was
simply an argument, a falling out that gets out of hand. And this is very how
many murders play out.
00:09:13
Carl used to say there
was money going missing. I think Carl's walked
in on something
00:09:20
and then Vinter caught him. One possibility would be
that he felt so disrespected
00:09:28
and he was so
enraged at the moment that he almost lost control
in a frenzied, brutal attack.
00:09:34
I suppose another
possibility is that he was gaining some sort
of perverse pleasure
00:09:38
in the act itself. It's one thing that
we'll never understand, why he did it. But it was brutal
and it was awful.
00:09:49
I think what we
see in Vinter is he's a man who does use violence
as a solution to problems
00:09:55
and then learns to
do it repeatedly. NARRATOR: Vinter handed himself
in at a local police station.
00:10:04
Covered in blood, he
was quickly charged with the murder of Carl Edon. There's no life for
me, just been took away.
00:10:19
What am I going to do? I'm dying inside. I could feel myself
dying, horrible feeling.
00:10:30
Carl, he was the
love of my life. And even now, there's
a big hole in my heart. Sorry.
00:10:47
Carlie, you were a
spit of your dad. You're so much like him. Yeah, thank God we've
got all these photos.
00:10:56
Everything--
[overlapping speech] Everything.
Yeah. NARRATOR: On May 20,
1996, Vinter appeared
00:11:09
at Teesside Crown Court. The hearing provided
little closure for Carl's fiancée
and mother of his two
00:11:16
young children, Michelle. Vinter, he was
just laughing at me. When I got called
in the witness box
00:11:27
as a character witness for
Carl, he was just looking at me and sniggering and stuff.
00:11:35
I hate him. I want to go in that
room and torture him. I want to kill him myself.
00:11:46
I'm not bothered-- I'm not
bothered how big he is. I want to go in there
now and kill him.
00:11:55
NARRATOR: Vinter was
sentenced to life on a 10-year minimum
term, meaning, if he behaved well,
he could be released.
00:12:05
He was sentenced to an
indeterminate sentence. He could be kept in prison
for the rest of his life.
00:12:12
However, when a minimum term is
imposed, in Gary Vinter's case, 10 years, what
that means is that
00:12:19
he cannot be released until
10 full years have elapsed. But once that 10
years has elapsed,
00:12:26
he is entitled for
the parole board to consider whether he
should in fact be released.
00:12:33
To be honest, 10 years
is a low minimum term. So it would seem
that Gary Vinter was treated quite leniently.
00:12:42
It wasn't justice at all. Because Carl wasn't
here to live his life every day, where
he still lives his.
00:12:55
NARRATOR: Vinter
wasn't done killing. Once released, his next target
would be a lot closer to home.
00:13:03
He attacked her. He strangled her and
stabbed her to death. 26-year-old Gary
Vinter had brutally
00:13:18
stabbed his work colleague,
Carl Edon, to death . In 1996, he was behind bars. He starts off
convicted of murder.
00:13:30
It was clearly a very, very
violent, visceral attack. It said that every organ
in his victim's body
00:13:39
was punctured with a stab wound. NARRATOR: Vinter was locked
up in a high security prison
00:13:49
with some of the country's
most dangerous criminals. Gary Vinter was doing a
life sentence in the '90s when
00:13:59
I first set eyes on him. I went to go and
look for this guy that I normally do drugs
with or have dealings with.
00:14:05
There were two men in there,
and a tall, tall man that I realized was Gary Vinter.
00:14:12
I didn't have to
see him down the gym to know that he was
physically supreme. He's really unusually tall.
00:14:18
There's not a lot
of men that high. As I pushed open the
door, everybody's jumped.
00:14:25
He had the tube in his mouth
one used to chase the dragon, which is heroin on the foil.
00:14:30
And he turned around and
looked at me, tutted. He said can't you
knock on the door.
00:14:36
I said it's not your cell. And I looked at him. And he looks at me. I knew straight away that
I wasn't going to like him.
00:14:46
First time I met Gary
was in Long Lartin. In some ways, he's a complex
character, quite volatile.
00:14:55
He can go off quite quickly. When he was in
prison, people did say he was a model prisoner.
00:15:02
So I think he had an act
that he could put on. But when you look at
the crimes he's done,
00:15:10
he is a brutal psychopath. He's quite good at
manipulating the system. You know, he knows that
if he plays by the rules
00:15:19
and doesn't act out
violently in prison, it's going to help his cause. You know, it might help
towards an early release date,
00:15:24
or he might get more privileges
whilst he's in prison. He used to move
predominantly on his own.
00:15:30
He was very, very quiet. And you could quite clearly
see he wasn't an idiot. He seemed like he knew
the survival skills.
00:15:39
NARRATOR: In the
two years leading up to his potential release, Vinter
made a series of home visits
00:15:44
from prison. And this time, he started
dating mom of four, Anne White. If a person forms a stable
relationship while they're
00:15:53
serving their sentence,
that definitely is capable of influencing
the parole board,
00:15:57
without any shadow of a doubt. It's thought less likely that
someone will go off the rails.
00:16:02
And what the parole
board will look at is whether that is a
person liable to have
00:16:06
a positive influence
on the offender. NARRATOR: After serving
the minimum 10-year term,
00:16:15
Vinter was let out on parole. If he committed a major
offense while out, he risked being locked up again
with no chance of release.
00:16:27
It's always a worry
when these things happen. When people are released,
it is very quick for murder.
00:16:35
NARRATOR: On release, Vinter's
relationship with Anne White quickly developed. She was a mother of four.
00:16:43
And they hit it off. She clearly fell
in love with him. NARRATOR: After
dating for less than a
00:16:51
year, to the shock of the
family, the couple got married. Anne White was aware
of what he had done.
00:17:00
And her family were,
as you would expect, very worried about what she
was getting herself into.
00:17:07
Vinter was probably
fairly charming on their first few interactions. So I think she had this
idealized version of what
00:17:13
his personality was like. But then once she
lived with him, his true colors started
to come through.
00:17:20
There were very, very
clear warning signs that that was not a good,
healthy, or functioning
00:17:25
relationship Vinter learns that
being difficult, being violent is the way that he
gets what he wants.
00:17:33
If something upsets
him, the way that he can deal with it, the way
that he can cause a reaction
00:17:39
is to use violence. NARRATOR: The couple moved
into Ann's Teesside home. But it wasn't long
before Vinter's
00:17:49
bad temper got the better of
him at a New Year's Eve party. At the Miners
Arms in Eston, which
00:17:58
is a very close knit
community in Teesside, all the locals will know
of each other there,
00:18:03
and he got caught up
in a pretty serious brutal brawl, which should
have sent alarm bells ringing.
00:18:12
It just shows that
nothing gets in his way and he's a very violent man. Anne was very worried
after she saw his temper,
00:18:21
she saw his violence. And she became worried
for her own safety. NARRATOR: Vinter was
charged with threatening
00:18:30
unlawful violence. Back behind bars,
Vinter reunited with some familiar
faces, like Yammy B.
00:18:41
I wasn't frightened of him. I was carrying weapons
at that stage, right? But I was thinking at
that time, he's a lifer.
00:18:48
He might not want
to get too violent. Because it could
affect him getting out. NARRATOR: Yammy had
scored some drugs
00:18:56
that Vinter had told him about. An hour later, as
I was coming down the stairs, a little bit out of
my nut kind of thing, buzzing.
00:19:03
And he walked straight up to me. "Why did you nick
my graft off me?" I said "nick your
graft off you?"
00:19:11
I said, "what do you mean?" He goes, "you know
exactly what I mean." His face was boiling.
00:19:15
His hands were clenched. I swear I thought he
was going to swing. "You're going red.
00:19:21
You look like you want
to knock my head off." And then he looks left
and he looks right.
00:19:24
And he saw two or three other
guys kind of getting close. They was there to help me.
00:19:32
So he stomps round
and marched off. From that day, really,
it was never going to be good between me and him.
00:19:44
NARRATOR: After
another year inside, Vinter was up for parole,
much to Anne White's horror.
00:19:50
But despite her worries, he
moved back in to her home. "He did mention that
his wife was looking
00:19:59
at ending the relationship. He wasn't happy with that
and didn't want it to end.
00:20:04
And I think that's
when he started to be violent towards her. When Anne tried to
distance herself from Vinter,
00:20:13
it's almost certain
that this would have triggered something in him. It would have made
him feel disrespected.
00:20:18
It would have enraged him. NARRATOR: One evening,
the couple had a huge row. And Vinter smashed
the TV in anger.
00:20:28
He packed a bag and stole
Anne's passport to stop her fleeing the country. People like Vinter,
who are perpetrators,
00:20:39
tend to want this power
and control and dominance. And when they feel that
they're not getting their way,
00:20:44
when their partner
stands up to them, then they escalate
their violence. NARRATOR: Anne White
ended the relationship.
00:20:52
Gary Vinter, who had
regularly been using steroids, took the rejection badly. He told me he got
jealous over her.
00:21:01
And that was partly
because of the 'roids. So he got angry. And he was saying he
followed her around pubs
00:21:08
and stuff as well, started to
get more volatile with her. NARRATOR: One evening,
high on drugs and alcohol,
00:21:17
Vinter hunted Anne down. Anne was out with some
friends, enjoying a night out. He then stalked her and
kidnapped her and took
00:21:27
her back to his mother's house. He's clearly somebody
who can't accept rejection.
00:21:37
He's somebody who's
probably quite sensitive and quite
paranoid, probably has quite a fragile ego.
00:21:44
Friends were worried
and phoned her. And she said that she was
OK, that she was fine.
00:21:50
They had rung the police
as they were worried about what was going to happen. NARRATOR: The
police called Anne.
00:21:57
Vinter forced her to
say that she was fine. Just half an hour
later, Anne was dead.
00:22:15
He attacked her. He strangled her and stabbed
her to death in the kitchen. NARRATOR: Anne White
had been stabbed
00:22:24
four times while Vinter's
mother was asleep upstairs. [phone ringing] Good evening.
00:22:32
Which emergency
service do you require? Police. Right. My name is Gary Vinter. I'm solely responsible
for the death of my wife.
00:22:41
There's nobody else
involved, just me. I killed my wife. That's all I'm prepared to say.
00:22:50
[sirens blaring] He comes out and does all that
and does a most unbelievable thing and surrenders
simply because you've
00:22:59
got nowhere to run to. NARRATOR: The police
stormed the house. As a precaution, they
used rubber bullets
00:23:07
to subdue Vinter. He was later charged
with Anne White's murder. It was an horrific
crime, horrific.
00:23:21
A lady there that tried to
help him when he was released and was paid back by her
life, taking her life.
00:23:29
So it was horrific, really,
and for all her family. And that was somebody who
showed him nothing but love.
00:23:36
He has killed two
people out of prison. And he should never be
allowed to be released.
00:23:44
NARRATOR: Vinter pleaded
guilty to murder. And he was told he would
spend the rest of his life
00:23:50
behind bars. He was now a man
with nothing to lose. He's lost all hope. He doesn't care no more
what happens to him.
00:24:00
He's on a final stand. And he's joining all different
teams to get his payment. He's taking out contracts
and hits from all sides.
00:24:16
NARRATOR: In 2008,
38-year-old Gary Vinter became a double murderer
after strangling and stabbing
00:24:24
his wife multiple times. Killing two people in
such a close knit community is going to rock the area.
00:24:34
People were devastated
and angry that this man had been released from prison
and was able to carry out
00:24:40
a second murder. NARRATOR: Vinter pleaded
guilty to Anne's murder, but didn't seem to be
sorry for what he had done.
00:24:52
Vinter's behavior in
the courtroom is horrible. It's nasty. It's very vindictive.
00:24:57
He didn't show a lot of
remorse for killing Anne White. He taunted her family a lot.
00:25:04
And he wouldn't
say why he did it. Anne's family were very
much against the relationship
00:25:09
between her and Vinter
for good reason. So I wonder whether
he knew about this and he was using this
as an opportunity
00:25:15
to hurt their feelings,
to jab out against them. Or maybe he had so much
disdain for Anne as a person
00:25:22
that he just projected
that onto her family. I can understand why Anne's
mother has so much hatred.
00:25:31
And the fact that he had already
killed once and was let out to kill her daughter, it
will be some comfort that he
00:25:39
will never be out of prison. But I think they won't
be happy until he's dead. NARRATOR: The judge
recommended that Vinter
00:25:49
be kept behind bars for life. I thought he'd care
a little bit about it. And he was saying he felt bad.
00:25:59
But I didn't really see
the emotion in his face or, you know, there was no
remorse there in his voice.
00:26:13
NARRATOR: Vinter was back
in prison in Long Lartin, this time with no hope
of being released.
00:26:22
It's during this second
phase of life imprisonment that Vinter becomes
the really difficult,
00:26:29
damaged, troubling prisoner
that he's known as today. There's more thorns
in prison to arrive at.
00:26:40
They've got razor wire, large
fences, built in the wall, housing 460 prisoners in the
prison on various wings, VP
00:26:52
wings, vulnerable prisoner
wings, and mainstream wings, and most mainstream
notorious prisoners in it.
00:27:02
The atmosphere in
prison is very volatile. Like, you've got to be careful
of how you present yourself.
00:27:07
One wrong move and
you're going to land yourself in deep trouble. Look at someone the wrong
way or just sit and snigger
00:27:13
at someone, catch
them on bad day, then you're going to
be bang in trouble if you can't stick
up for yourself.
00:27:19
Prison is a truly dangerous
place for the simple fact you could lose your life in there.
00:27:27
NARRATOR: Prisoners who
harm women or children are at high risk of retribution. But top dog Gary Vinter was
feared by most of his peers.
00:27:40
If he'd have been 5 foot
7 and 10 stone wet through, I would imagine somebody would
try to have done something
00:27:47
to him because of his offense. I would say he was a bit more
aggressive in his attitude.
00:27:54
I think he'd built up that
air of domination, really, amongst some other
prisoners as well.
00:28:01
So they'd have that fear
whenever they were near him. You could see that. He had the edge now with
him, all the prisoners.
00:28:10
NARRATOR: Seen as wielding
too much power at Long Lartin, Vinter was transferred
to HMP Franklin.
00:28:18
At that time, Ricky Killen
was also locked up there. The type of people
that end up in Franklin
00:28:24
are the worst of the worst. You've got serial
killers, terrorists, murderers, armed robbers.
00:28:31
When I first landed there,
it had inscribed on the wall "Welcome To Hell." The second day I was
there, I seen a terrorist
00:28:39
get hot oil in the kitchen. I was in the kitchen because you
can cook your own food there.
00:28:45
And I watched some lad come
in, pick the pot of hot oil up, and just tip it over
the terrorist's head.
00:28:53
And then I just seen
his skin peeling off the back of his head. I first met Gary Vinter in 2008.
00:29:02
And I'd been there about a year. And Gary came onto
the same wing as me. I'm quite a big bloke.
00:29:09
And he's a lot bigger
than me, so he's quite intimidating to look at. He started thinking
that people had
00:29:15
to bow down to him because of
the sentence that he was doing. He wanted to feel as
if he was in control.
00:29:23
When you come across someone who
is doing life without parole, you sort of just keep
out of their way.
00:29:28
Because obviously, they've
got nothing to lose. NARRATOR: Vinter
had shown so much
00:29:35
aggression to other
inmates that he was moved to solitary confinement. They've got a
segregation unit where
00:29:43
any prisoners that
might be housed down there for their own safety. You've also got ones that are
down there on GOAD, good order
00:29:52
and discipline. So they're the
ones who have done attacks on other prisoners. I'd got into a
madness on the wing.
00:30:00
And I ended up down
in segregation. So exercise in the morning,
I came out on the yard.
00:30:06
I was in a cage by
myself, me, seeing who was in the next cage, Gary Vinter. NARRATOR: Because of
their previous run-ins,
00:30:17
Yammy B was still
wary of Vinter. When you're down
to segregation, there's only certain people
that you can talk to.
00:30:23
And it was only me
and him on the yard. Now I called him Winter. He said, "my name
is Vinter, mate."
00:30:29
I said. "yeah." I said, "you're right." I go, "did you do
the same sentence?" He said, "no, I'm doing
another sentence."
00:30:34
I goes, "what for?" "Murder." He just stomps off and
walks around the yard. But he looked
different, too, when
00:30:42
I saw him, from the first time. His eyes looked a bit stary. He didn't look too well to me.
00:30:50
Didn't want to be
in his presence. This time round, when I saw him,
I would say that I feared him.
00:30:59
NARRATOR: Vinter had
become a heavy drug taker. But it was an expensive hobby. When you take drugs in
prison, you get in debt.
00:31:07
Then, obviously,
you're going to get yourself in a lot of
trouble by the lads that are selling the drugs.
00:31:13
NARRATOR: Word on
the prison wings was that Vinter's
motive for violence was not always personal.
00:31:20
I think because it was
natural life, never getting out, he was quite primed for
somebody to target, to use,
00:31:29
to go and do the
dirty work for him. So if somebody had a problem
with somebody on the wing,
00:31:35
Gary would do the hit on him. To see him around
other inmates and to see that they don't
really want to say hello
00:31:44
to him, they don't really
want to talk to him, that the only conversation
that they will have with him
00:31:49
is if they need him to
do a hit and a contract. So he's been, I know of,
at least six or seven hits
00:31:58
that he's done. So that was in the space
of what, 18 months? So what else has happened
since then then, then?
00:32:07
The size of him,
just if you bumped in him would cause some damage. Gary Vinter's
joined all the gangs,
00:32:16
all for the name of drugs. He's a completely
different man to when he served the early life sentence.
00:32:24
NARRATOR: To Vinter,
everyone was fair game. Even prison officers
were at risk. They must have been
going to give Vinter
00:32:31
his breakfast in the morning. And he must have gone off. So he's hurt a couple
of screws off him.
00:32:38
And then I could
hear them marching about a half hour later. So you could see
them all getting
00:32:42
their kit on, the
helmets with the shields, and all that kind of stuff. And they're marching
towards his cell.
00:32:49
And then bang, you could
hear the door being removed. And the rushing and the rustle
of the shields and all that.
00:32:56
Vinter, that morning, I could
see it was going on for ages. So whatever was
happening in there,
00:33:02
he was having a terrible go. NARRATOR: After causing
so much trouble, Vinter was transferred again,
this time to HMP Wakefield.
00:33:19
Wakefield Prison is
known as Monster Mansion because it houses some of the
worst criminals in the UK.
00:33:26
So he's very much a part
of the furniture there. NARRATOR: Vinter was locked
away in the isolation unit.
00:33:33
He wasn't happy about
being separated from all the action and the drugs. He had been complaining
to prison officers
00:33:43
that he didn't like
his conditions. He wanted out. He wanted something better. And he threatened
to kill a lifer
00:33:51
unless his conditions changed. But the difference with Gary
and a lot of other prisoners,
00:33:57
if he made the threat, you'd
have to take it seriously. Because he will carry it out.
00:34:05
NARRATOR: Vinter set his
sights on a high profile target, one that would
get lots of attention.
00:34:13
Roy Whiting is in
prison for killing Sarah Payne, a little schoolgirl. And that was the case that
shocked the entire nation.
00:34:22
It was an awful, awful killing
of such a gorgeous little girl. NARRATOR: Roy Whiting, a
convicted murderer and sex
00:34:30
offender, was nine years into a
40-year sentence for the crime. And with Whiting on the same
wing, Vinter had a target.
00:34:41
He told me he split the
end of the toilet brush so it's sharpened up. We used to sharpen
it down into a point.
00:34:47
And that would be
used as a weapon. When people are trying to
hurt someone in prison,
00:34:52
they want to inflict the
most serious harm on them. So when they're using these
weapons, they go for the eyes.
00:34:58
Because that's going to
cause the most damage, or for the neck, to
try and inflict as much
00:35:03
damage as possible. He said that his
plan, to go in there and kill the nonce bastard.
00:35:09
Gary Vinter saw an opening. He saw Roy Whiting in his cell. The door was ajar. NARRATOR: Gary
Vinter was locked up
00:35:23
in one of the UK's
most notorious prisons, HMP Wakefield, also
known as Monster Mansion.
00:35:32
Vinter wasn't happy
and planned to attack child killer Roy Whiting in
order to get himself moved.
00:35:42
In July 2011, Vinter saw
Whiting's cell door was open and decided this was his moment.
00:35:52
He went in with his tool that
he made himself and stabbed him in both of his eyes.
00:36:00
Roy Whiting fell to the ground. And he beat him. He kicked him, punched him,
very nearly killed him.
00:36:07
When he put it in his
eye, the actual toilet brush broke in his socket. He said it snapped.
00:36:14
He couldn't do the damage
then with the toilet brush after, to stab him off. So he just started
beating him up, kicking
00:36:21
him, kicking him in the head. But he said he got tired as
he was trying to kill him.
00:36:27
So it's very possible
that Vinter did this because, in his own
warped sense of morality
00:36:32
and mixed in with an
inferiority complex, he sees himself as superior. He sees himself as better.
00:36:39
NARRATOR: Roy Whiting
was hospitalized, but made a full recovery. Vinter was charged with
wounding with intent
00:36:47
and the case was heard
at Newcastle Crown Court. Once in the dock, Vinter made
no apologies for his actions.
00:36:56
It was a really strange,
bizarre court case. Because he is so dangerous and
he is in confinement in prison,
00:37:03
it was done via video link. He was smiling pretty
much the whole time. NARRATOR: Vinter
pleaded guilty and was
00:37:11
given an indefinite sentence. His lawyer said he is
pleased with what he'd done.
00:37:19
He got satisfaction out
of attacking Roy Whiting. And he wanted to kill him. I remember Vinter
interrupting the court hearing
00:37:30
to say that he stabbed
him because he thought he was a dirty little nonce. When he said those words
in court, he seemed happy.
00:37:38
He seemed satisfied
with what he'd done. He said to the judge,
"thanks, judge. It's been a pleasure."
00:37:45
He liked the attention. And I remember thinking
he will do that again. NARRATOR: In May
2014, Vinter was
00:37:57
transferred to HMP Woodhill. In this jail,
Vinter was no longer at the top of the hierarchy.
00:38:05
It's traditionally held some
of the most notorious inmates, the likes of Charles Bronson,
for example, who are held
00:38:13
in a closed supervision
center in Woodhill, which is a kind of intense
unit that's heavily,
00:38:20
heavily staffed by
experienced prison officers, that deals with the most
difficult, dangerous,
00:38:26
and damaged prisoners. I heard he got into an
altercation with the Muslims. And he'd then become
a target himself.
00:38:39
The best way of survival would
be to join the Muslim gangs. Because no longer
did the old villain
00:38:45
have the say on the wing
when there was trouble. Or I would sort it out this way.
00:38:49
We'd sort it out the proper way. Now it was the head
of the Muslim gangs who would have the final say.
00:38:55
And the rule is, inside
the Category A's, that Muslims are not allowed
to fight their fellow Muslims.
00:39:02
So he converted to
Islam to be one of them, to protect himself. NARRATOR: Rehabilitation
is offered to all inmates,
00:39:12
but was off the cards
for Gary Vinter. He had no interest
in reform and had passed the point of no return.
00:39:19
There would have been
rehabilitation services for alcohol and drug problems. But of course, the individual
has to want to engage.
00:39:26
And if they don't have
that drive, that insight, then it doesn't matter
what's out there.
00:39:31
The whole system is
not going to help them. The norm is to continue to
behave in exactly the same way
00:39:38
that people have previously. The greatest predictor
of future behavior is what people have
done in the past.
00:39:46
NARRATOR: Vinter
is no exception. He continues to be aggressive
and makes threats if he is
00:39:51
not moved back to Long Lartin. The kind of violence
Vinter's prepared to do is extreme, extreme,
extreme violence.
00:40:02
Prisoners have very
little to bargain with. One way that they can get
what they want, and they
00:40:09
have long known this,
is to use the threat of coercion and violence. NARRATOR: Vinter's ultimatums
were not enough to get him
00:40:18
what he wanted. So he does what he knows best. Vinter's next attack
is on a prisoner
00:40:26
by the name of Lee Newell,
who himself is convicted of the murder of another
prisoner, a sex offender,
00:40:32
while in prison custody. NARRATOR: Lee Newell
was first jailed for strangling a 56-year-old
neighbor, Mary Neil, to death.
00:40:46
Vinter had him in his sights. They're left together
on an exercise yard. And Vinter, who stands at 6
foot 7 and 200 pounds of muscle,
00:40:58
manages to knock Newell down
and jump up and down on his head in what's been described by
some staff that bore witness
00:41:05
to it as one of the worst
acts of prison violence that they'd ever witnessed. It took him only 27 seconds
to brutally attack him.
00:41:16
They had a beef
before somewhere. And Vinter got the chance to do
him and absolutely maimed him.
00:41:22
NARRATOR: Newell suffered
a fractured skull, a severe brain injury, and
was left blind in one eye.
00:41:30
Gary Vinter clearly
has no boundaries. Anything is doable for him. When you look at the killings
and the attacks that he's done,
00:41:39
nothing stops him
and clearly he wants them to end in fatalities. His violence is not reactive.
00:41:48
It seems very cold
and calculated. He seems quite
instrumental in his nature. It feels like he views
Newell as not even a human.
00:41:55
He's just an object, a
hurdle, a means to an end. Vinter is without
doubt the worst
00:42:03
criminal I have ever covered
in my time of crime reporting. He is a psychopath,
brutally violent.
00:42:11
And what terrified me the most
is that he just didn't care. He has no remorse for
anything that he's done.
00:42:21
NARRATOR: Following
the attack, Vinter was not returned to Long Lartin. , Instead he was
sent to a notoriously
00:42:29
tough and overcrowded
prison, HMP Belmarsh. Some of the most
disorderly prisons are the most overcrowded.
00:42:39
Because prison overcrowding
creates added frustration, competition for resources,
more tension, very often
00:42:47
more frustration,
anger, annoyance, more demand on staff. NARRATOR: In 2018, contrary
to his Muslim conversion,
00:43:05
Vinter started an
Islamophobic gang called Death Before Dishonor. There were
numerous attacks that
00:43:14
are perpetrated by that
group on other prisoners. Particularly some of the close
supervision centers become very
00:43:21
difficult and tense places. He's like a ticking time bomb. He could go off at any time.
00:43:27
But also, he's at risk of
being attacked as well. NARRATOR: Vinter will
remain behind bars
00:43:36
in a maximum security prison
for the rest of his life with no option of parole. He is at the top
of the food chain
00:43:46
and feared by the most
dangerous of prisoners. One person who does not
fear him is the partner
00:43:55
of his first victim, Michelle. He's a monster. He's evil. Should be that Vinter's
in there, not him.
00:44:09
I've got two girls. It's them two that's
keeping me going. But if it wasn't for them
girls, I'd have no one, nothing.
00:44:18
It's them that's kept me
going all these years. Me and the girls
really miss him deeply.
00:44:25
Always loved and forever
gone, but never forgotten. Gary Vinter should never,
ever be allowed out of prison.
00:44:37
He is a dangerous
psychopath who would kill anyone in his sights. He has no boundaries.
00:44:44
He likes the attention. And he has said many times
he has nothing to lose. Somebody will die
very soon, possibly him.