EVEN the biggest underworld villains have to start somewhere. In Curtis Warren's case his career as a criminal got under way at the age of 11 when he was recruited to join a team of notorious south Liverpool burglars.

According to the man who recruited him, the youthful Warren had "the face of an angel" and was small enough to fit through even the tiniest of windows. That man was Stephen French, a notorious Liverpool gangster who has now decided to lift the lid on his criminal past after undergoing a road to Damascus style conversion and turning his back on crime.

French, nicknamed "The Devil" because he struck such fear into the drug dealers he taxed and tortured, is now a legitimate businessman with a multi-million pound empire.