A 'reformed' Salford gangster known as One Punch Doyle has been released from prison on licence after serving half of a 16-year prison sentence for plotting to flood the north west with drugs.
Paul Doyle, 64, now back in Salford after living the high life in Altrincham before his most recent conviction, has vowed to use his newfound freedom to steer young people away from crime.
He was jailed in 2015 for plotting to flood the north with vast quantities of heroin, cocaine, cannabis and amphetamines worth £300m.
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Doyle used his ill-gotten gains to pay for a comfortable life in a leafy suburb where he raised eleven children in a £800,000 home.
His well-to-do neighbours on Wainwright Road, Altrincham, had little idea about the Salford hardman in their midst - until the police came knocking in 2014.
He bought the property in 2004 - shortly after being released from a seven-year sentence for drug dealing. At the time he had never worked and was claiming benefits along with his wife, who falsely claimed to be a £200,000 a year executive to secure a mortgage.
However, between 2012 and 2014, after struggling to meet the £3,000 a month repayments on the mortgage, Doyle became involved in a series of major wholesale drug deals - unravelled by surveillance operations involving police across the country - which culminated in the raid at the home in 2014.
It was while he was at Thorn Cross open prison in Warrington he finalised his book, Surviving The Madness, and spoke to the M.E.N. about his time as a crimina l.
In a story we published, he urged would-be criminals to find another path. He said at the time: "They need to be educated not to go down the same path as me. I understand that now.
"You can put that same energy into starting a business and will most probably prosper instead of putting it into criminality."
Then on the cusp of an early release, he was moved from the open prison to the closed Category C prison, HMP Hindley in Wigan, where he had privileges removed and was placed 'on segregation'.
His publishers said he was 'being punished' for the memoir he penned behind bars but the prison authorities insisted the move was down to 'breaches of his licence conditions'.
After his release, Paul told the M.E.N: "Being out is going to get a bit of getting used to. At every traffic lights these days it looks like matchday. People think you can just go back to normal but it's not like that when you've just walked out of the doors of a prison. It's going to take maybe 18 months.
"Over the years, with experience, I've come to realise there are different ways of doing things than just going back and forth from prison. There was no sense of hope in that life. When I saw young lads in prison, they are like zombies. The person I was then isn't the person I am now. I can't go back to that life. If I breach my licence, I'll be going away for a very long time."
Paul, who became superfit behind bars, added: "What I'd like to do is run gyms, and encourage people to concentrate on their fitness and health rather than being out on the street. I want to help young kids avoid crime."
Paul's ghost writer Joe Brown, from On Top Media, said: "It is great to see Paul with his freedom again after eight years. We are now hoping to work with him in continuing to tell his life story offering insight for the youngsters of today and the realities of choosing a life of crime.
"Paul has a surprising amount of business acumen, considering he was taken into care at nine years old - and had no real education. Hopefully he can now apply that savviness to a legitimate project. We are currently working with James English on an 'Anything Goes' podcast episode that will be available in the near future."
In his younger days, at 5ft 8in tall, Doyle was frequently underestimated by his rivals because of his size. That all changed one night in the early 1970s at Pips nightclub in Manchester.
When trouble erupted that night, he was at the centre of it. In quick succession, he knocked out five people who fancied their chances against him, each one felled by a single blow from Doyle's clenched, tattooed fist.
It was a spectacular outburst of violence which earned him the nickname 'One Punch Doyle'. Asked about his nickname during his MEN interview, he said: "I pounded punch bags five hours a day when I was young.
"I mastered the art of fighting. I never really had to go into second or third gear. I was 14 stone of muscle. I learned how to throw a knuckle punch.
"People were queuing up to fight me because they thought I was an easy target. I was taking them all out. And the ones I took out early were the lucky ones."
From that moment, the underworld legend of 'One punch Doyle' was born. He was a gangster, a drug dealer, a robber and a Manchester United hooligan in a criminal career that spanned five decades, much of it spent at Her Majesty's pleasure.
Detectives in the city knew him as a 'handy lad' from Salford who was not to be messed with. One, after viewing CCTV of Doyle knocking someone else out, said 'it was one the best punches I've ever seen'.
He was also feared and respected by fellow Salford criminals like Paul Massey, a fellow graduate of Salford's Catholic 'reform schools'.
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