Maurice O'Mahoney

BORN 09/O3/1949

Maurice O'Mahoney was a career criminal in Britain in the 1960 and 1970s who achieved notoriety after becoming a supergrass.

Following the unprecedented legal protection given to Bertie Smalls, O'Mahoney agreed to testify about crimes he knew of or participated in, and he took full advantage of the new approach of Scotland Yard that required management and support of key informers. O'Mahoney was reported to spend long periods of time in Chiswick police station coming up with details on his previous crimes.

He referred to himself in person and in the title of his autobiography as "King Squealer."

He was born into a large irish catholic family in the london borough of paddington.his life of crime began fairly early on in his childhood continuing throughout his adult life.he was in the words of a late retired flying squad officer jack slipper" he was the cunningest villain that i ever met" .he surfaced again in 1992 the result of a failed attempt to have him silenced by ex metropolitan police officers as he was believed to be negotiating a deal to write a new book detailing the corruption of metropolitan police officers going back as far as the 1960,s.he was asked to participate in a armed robbery in west london where there was an flying squad team lying in wait.there were shots fired but they failed to hit there intended target.he was tried at the old bailey and was later acquitted of armed robbery .he came to light again in the north east in 1996 when he was arrested with his son in connection with armed robberies in the london area and also in the north east of England. However there were no charges brought against o'mahoney or his son.he later took northumbria police to court for wrongful arrest and tried the case by himself. He was commended by the judge for his knowledge on the law. He lost the case but later said "putting the police in the dock reversed the roles as police officers sometimes get it wrong but will not accept the fact that they are mistaken as they get a personal grudge against the person if there is a name to be made for themselves " there are good police officers but there are also some that are corrupt and need to be held accountable".

Published works

*"King Squealer" with Dan Wooding (W.H. Allen, 1978)