A reformed drugs gang leader has told how he turned his back on crime – but he’ll always carry a little piece of his violent past with him.
Matthew Norford led a gang during some of Manchester’s most violent times in the 1980s, but has now turned his life around. Speaking on the Daily Express’ On The Edge podcast, he recalled some of his most hair-raising moments.
“I got shot with a machine gun, I’ve still got the bullet still in my leg,” he said, referencing a violent shootout with members of a rival gang. For once wasn’t carrying his own gun. He explained: “I saw a kid with a machine gun, walking sideways to steady himself and I thought ‘Oh this kid knows what he’s doing.’
“As I’m leaning forward, my bulletproof vest came up, so I’m thinking ‘Oh he’s going to rip through my intestines,’ in that moment I said ‘God if this kid’s going to shoot me, please let him shoot me in my lower body’.” Matthew got his wish – but one of the bullets hit him in the penis.
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He managed to make it to a family member’s home before passing out from blood loss. When he came to in hospital, medics told him that he had been lucky to escape with his life. He went on: “The older doctor came down and he said [the bullet] has gone in and out your left leg.
“Then he’s held my penis in two hands, and the bullet had gone through the bottom of my penis so it was kind of snapped. I just blacked out.
“I woke up in the next morning and the doctor came in and said ‘So it went your left thigh, went through your penis it’s gone through your right testicle and it’s in your right leg.”
(Image: Scott Hesketh)
Matthew recalled how gun violence was an everyday part of life in the dark days when his home town was known as “Gunchester”: He went on: “We’d get up in the morning at about eight, brush your teeth, shower, throw your black clothes on and your bulletproof vest.”
“Then roll your balaclava up, get a sack of weed. Then you’re rolling in a car or you’re on a bike, you definitely got a gun.”
His days were spent prowling enemy turf, ready to blast anyone from rival gangs. He said: “We’d look to shoot anybody catch someone dropping a kid off, or catch him at a porridge shop.”
While the daylight hours were comparatively relaxed, come nightfall, it was all-out war. Matthew explained: “Balaclavas on, riding through the alleyways with our guns out riding no-handed so if we see someone we’ve already got the drop, we can start shooting.”
(Image: @matthew_norford/X)
He’s now filled with remorse over the terror he and his mates spread back then. He went on to say: “I remember thinking about times we chased people down, times I’ve shot people and can see them running for their lives … the times when we ran into people’s mum’s houses and the mums and the kids are screaming and everything.”
Matthew reckons that Manchester has come a long way since those dark days. “I think it was worse than it is now,” he reflects.
“There were gun shots every day, people were getting shot we would ride no hands with our guns out in broad daylight and see people and start shooting.”
He even recounted a chilling incident that highlighted the nonchalance of gang life, involving him and his notorious older brother Gary. “I remember one incident where we were riding in the morning half seven Gary’s called me Gary was a mad man this is half seven in the morning rolled up our balaclavas, all in black, bulletproof vest on riding down to Maine Road,” he detailed.
(Image: @matthew_norford/X)
“We pulled up in Moss side, he’s got his balaclava down, I’ve got my balaclava down…” By now, it was the middle of the morning rush hour and Matthew recalls seeing ordinary people on their way to work, and remembers the shock registering on their faces as the two armed youths emerged from an alleyway.
“Gary jumped off the bike, I held the two bikes he’s knocked the door with the .44 and then he’s knocked t the window and you can see someone come and they’ve ducked,” he continued.
“Everyone in the cars was staring, he calmly got back on the bike we rode back up to Rusholme and as we got in the house and as we got in the house I said ‘What were you going to do? ” and he said ‘Shoot whoever came to the door’. “Matthew pointed out that the person that answered the door could well have had nothing to do with gang violence and told his brother he couldn’t be part of that. “Six months later, Gary was up for murder,” he said.
Gun violence was just an everyday part of his life. He added: “The shootings were every day, I used to carry a gun every single day. You’re selling drugs, so you’re worrying about the drugs the guns people trying to kill you. “Eventually, Matthew turned his back on that life and is now working to now raise awareness on the impact of “county lines” gang crime.