The Co-operative Society made Mark Roberts redundant in 1993. The decision paid huge dividends for British policing.
He was 25-years-old. His dad, Stan, was an engineer, and mum Pat, a dinner lady at St Mary's RC Secondary Modern School in Stretford, including while Morrissey had been a pupil. There was no history of coppers in the family, but Greater Manchester Police fitted like a hand in a glove as a career move.
He began at Swinton Police Station, the year after Salford had seen civil disturbance with shots fired at police and firefighters, council buildings and vehicles torched, and tensions simmering between "Dibble" and a hostile minority. Yet when he joined the thin blue line he flourished.
