We have a couple of pitbulls we’ve taken in. They’re fighting dogs and we rescued them. I knew one of them could be dangerous - he’s been badly treated in the past -  but I thought he was all right with us. The other day I had an argument with Andrea and the dog went for me. I thought it was going to kill me. It had its teeth in my chest and it was going for my neck. I managed to beat it off with a piece of wood but I could tell it would have ripped me apart. We should get rid of it really, but Andrea wants to keep it and look after it. It’s good with her, but I make sure it stays in the cage when I’m around. 

I buy copper from the kids in South Bank and I sell it on to scrap dealers. The kids get it from the empty houses. And I get the electrical wiring from the demolition contractors, and I sell that on as well. I live off the remnants of the place, like a vulture. I used to sell crack but I was arrested for that, and I got a four year prison sentence.

My dad was a dustman and my mum worked in the chippies. Both of them left early in the morning. I walked the couple of miles to my nanna’s and she would give me breakfast and from there I would take the bus to school. No one noticed whether I went to school or not and I had to make a big effort to get there, so in the end I stayed away and sniffed glue instead. When I was thirteen I was sent to a special school because my reading and writing weren’t good, and from then on I made steady progress from detention centre to borstal and finally to prison, where I’ve spent most of my life.

My mum split up with my dad when I was fourteen, and she chose which children she wanted to take with her and which she would leave behind. She left me behind, and I went to live with my nanna, who was already in her seventies. I never saw my mother again. She moved to Bishop Auckland, which is only fifteen miles away, but she didn’t bother with me, and because of that I couldn’t be arsed with her either. She died a few years ago without my seeing her again. My dad’s still around. He’s got a new family now. I’ve no reason to see him either.