In the winter of 2021, the future for exceptionally talented mixed martial artist Shaqueme Rock looked bleak.
Six years on the run had ended in Belfast on October 9, with a tap on the shoulder from the Police Service of Northern Ireland (PSNI). The self-described street kid was carted back to Liverpool to face trial over a violent burglary back in 2014 which he did not commit.
Shaqueme, known as Shem to friends, family and his growing MMA fanbase, spent six months on remand at HMP Liverpool in Walton, where he was forced to "switch back on" the mindset he used on the streets.
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But the Brazilian ju-jitsu specialist saw his once bright future restored in April this year when he was found not guilty of burglary and assault causing actual bodily harm. Now, Shem trains alongside scouse UFC stars Paddy 'The Baddy' Pimblett and 'Meatball' Molly McCann at the acclaimed Next Gen MMA gym in Kempston Street, Liverpool City Centre.
In an interview with the ECHO, 28-year-old Shem described how he looked up to gangsters as a misguided teenager in Toxteth, his years honing his skills in Malaysia and his astonishing career path.
Shem spent his early years in Liverpool 8, where he said he and his friends were wowed by the seemingly glamourous lifestyles of the local drug-dealers. He said: "Growing up as a kid in Toxteth, they would all be driving the big cars, living the flash lifestyle out on Granby Street.
"When you are seven, eight and nine it is going to make you want to be like that. They are the only ones driving a flash Aston Martin. People talk about footballers, but in Toxteth even the top players would come and hang around them."
Shem said he took to hanging around with older kids, and trouble followed. Shem and his family did leave L8 when his parents split up, but the youngster would simply "get the bus back" to his old neighbourhood and continued to get up to no good.
His family spent some tough years bouncing from Norris Green to Rock Ferry, sometimes staying in hostels. He even spent some time living in London, attending the tough Woodside School in Wood Green, Haringey, where he said he was threatened with a knife on his first day.
Living back in Merseyside, Shem says he began to realise his life was going down a dangerous path. He said: "I actually wanted to do something, I actually wanted to not be involved in crime, so I started to go to college."
Shem enrolled in a horticultural school in Nantwich, Cheshire - which he said "felt to me like Hogwarts, I loved it". Despite feeling like he did not fit in with the other, less streetwise kids, he enjoyed learning new skills and mixing with different people. He said: "I stopped everything, I was doing no grafting, just living off the dole and going to college every day."
However one day police arrived at the college to arrest him over an accusation of handling stolen goods, which Shem says he was innocent of and which no charges were laid over. However the sight of police on college grounds led to him being asked to leave his course, and Shem says he angrily turned back to crime.
By 2014, he was a wild 19-year-old tearaway firmly on the radar of police, and his lifestyle was about to catch up with him. He said: "Someone called me and told me my cousin had been remanded in custody. I was like, that's mad. Obviously back then I wasn't living the cleanest lifestyle. I had not found martial arts.
"I was arrested over motorbikes, so Merseyside Police took me to the police station in Liverpool. I was thinking I will definitely get off for this, it wasn't my first rodeo. I was told to go no comment and I was not even letting them finish their questions, I just wanted to get out of the station as soon as I could.
"But they started asking me a lot about my cousin; am I scared of him, was I his enforcer. I was thinking 'he's my cousin'. I was released on bail, but when I was released he got remanded. I was just thinking 'you have got bail, this is definitely going to get thrown in the bin next week'.
"But then I got a phone call from my solicitor, saying the police have made a mistake bailing you, you need to come back. The next morning I got on a Eurostar."
Shem would not return to Merseyside for more than half a decade, and after a few months kicking around Europe and Thailand, ended up staying with his older brother who worked in Malaysia.
Shem says he ran fearing he would get lost in the system in the UK. But his time on the run came with an obvious dark side. He said: "I regret the effect it had on my family, my mum. She was getting a lot of pressure from Merseyside Police, they were always at her door."
Shem's mum made a number of civil claims against Merseyside Police, who agreed settlements of several thousand pounds without an admission of liability on some claims while others are still in discussion between the parties. A spokesman for the force said: "All civil claims for damages presented to Merseyside Police are thoroughly examined by the force's legal team and investigated appropriately."
At a loose end and with his future up in the air and knowing no-one in a strange country, Shem one day spotted a sign for a Brazilian ju-jitsu gym and decided to wander in. He said: "I have always been a big fan of MMA. I always watched it with my dad and his mates, they followed the boxing and I watched videos of Royston Gracie, we were always watching combat sports. I used to love it when the fight went to the floor.
"I knew what ju-jitsu was but I had only ever watched it. I knew when things went to the ground there was no match for it."
Shem says he walked into the gym with a swagger. He said: "On the first day, in my mind, I believed I could beat people up. I thought 'I'm from the streets, I've had loads of fights'. I thought it would be a bit of rolling around on the floor.
"So I went in there, and I was getting choked out by kids, by women, by small men. I got my a*** handed to me. When I went home I scratched my head, I thought 'I don't know what the f*** this' is but I wanted to do it to other people. From that day I just knew I wanted to learn this, I just wanted to defend myself."
Shem, with little else to do and with a potential prison sentence awaiting him back home, threw himself into training and it quickly became clear he had considerable talent. In time he found he was able to submit far more experienced fighters and his skills did not go unnoticed as he competed and won in ju-jitsu and later MMA tournaments all around south-east Asia.
Remarkably, while a wanted man in the UK, Shem even took part in a reality TV series called One Warrior, where competitors fight for the chance to win a contract in the One Championship, a top-tier Asian promotion comparable with the UFC or Bellator in the West.
However, checks were conducted on Shem's background and the grand prize evaporated when One bosses realised he was a wanted man. Shem says his coach at the BJJ gym cooled on him and he realised his career in Asia had stalled.
Shem managed to leave Malaysia and flew to the Republic of Ireland, where he trained at the same gym used by UFC mega-star Conor McGregor. Shem said the management of the gym were particularly cautious to prevent the "wrong people" getting close to the millionaire Irish fighter, and they soon discovered Shem's unwanted baggage.
He said: "I was told they didn't want any bad press on the gym and asked me to leave, it was heart-breaking. But it turned into a blessing in disguise." Shem soon found another gym, Dublin Combat Academy, where he continued to hone his skills.
But now much closer to home and not exactly keeping his head down, Shem's time on the run was coming to an end. On October 9, he travelled across the border to Northern Ireland to compete in a Clan Wars promotion in Belfast.
Shem said: "I didn't think too much about my case back home, but I think it was always there that I would have to face it. I kept saying to myself the first time I lose I will go back."
Ironically, Shem's last fight before his arrest marked the first defeat in his fledgling career, a knockout loss to Nate Kelly. As he left the Jim Baker Stadium in Belfast, he heard a voice asking his name. Shem said: "The guy said 'Shaqueme Rock'? I said 'yeah?' and then he put the handcuffs on me."
He was returned to Liverpool and unsurprisingly after his years on the loose, was denied bail. As well as the monotony of life on the wings in Walton prison, Shem's dream of a glittering MMA career seemed almost over. He said: "I never thought I would have to go back to that lifestyle, but it was surprisingly easy to flip that switch. From that persona on Instagram, I am now in jail and you have to act a certain way."
As his trial approached, Shem's manager, Siju Roseje, made a consequential decision to employ the services of a top criminal barrister, Blondel Thompson of St Philips Chambers in Birmingham, in Shem's defence.
Ms Thompson took the case and according to Shem, eviscerated the prosecution's main witness, the complainant in the case, during cross-examination. Ms Blondel told the ECHO the complainant's credibility had been the key issue at trial.
Shem said: "I remember when she was questioning him, I saw someone in the jury looking at the complainant like 'what is he on about?'."
Stepping out of the cells in Liverpool Crown Court and into a life with no legal troubles hanging over him - Shem says he adopted a laser-like focus on training and dedication to his sport.
Now, his talent could take him places he never dreamed of as a young, lost teenager on the streets of Toxteth. He said: "So many people from that life, the majority of my friends are in jail, on drugs or dead, or on that path. For me I want to that guy who people who are like me can relate to.
"When I was young there was no Paddy or Molly to look up to, and I want to be like that. I want to show you don't have to sell drugs."
Shem has his sights set on the UFC like his increasingly celebrated training partners, but the next order of business is a lightweight title fight against Harry Davies on September 3, on the Contenders 23 card at the Crystal Palace National Sports Centre in London.
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