Brother's warning after 'volatile' and violent gangster escapes prison

A former gang leader has spoken after his brother absconded from prison. Daniel Gee, 44, is wanted after escaping from prison - sparking a major search operation across the UK. He was a key figure in an organised crime group that created a round-the-clock drugs market.

Gee received an indeterminate sentence for public protection 14 years ago, after being caught plotting to purchase firearms and issuing death threats to someone who shot him back on New Year's Day 2008.

His brother Darren Gee, 45, who controlled Everton's Grizedale estate with his younger brother, turning it into a round-the-clock drug trading zone has now spoken to the Criminal Connection Podcast.

The reformed character who is now an anti-knife campaigner and true-crime expert, acknowledged his brother's disappearance.

He told podcast host Terry Stone: "[Daniel] has absconded in the last few days. I am hoping it's a planned abscond. If it's an emotional abscond, it's going to go wrong. If it's planned then hopefully he is out the country."

Daniel, 44, was jailed indefinitely in 2010 for gun offences after he plotted revenge against a teenager after he was shot outside a pub. But on Monday, May 27 he absconded from prison the previous evening. Cleveland Police officers are leading the investigation into his disappearance, but despite the story making national headlines, the only evidence of his whereabouts is a grainy CCTV image.

He was last seen walking towards James Cook train station before boarding a service onto Middlesbrough. Cleveland Police has been unable to make further developments into his disappearance. Given his previous links to the criminal underworld coupled with his proximity to Scotland and Newcastle, investigating officers will fear he might already have fled the country.

When Daniel was last seen, he was wearing a pale blue t-shirt, black Adidas tracksuit bottoms with white stripes down both legs and a beige hat. He was also carrying a JD bag which was likely to have a black hoodie inside it. Daniel was jailed after he plotted to arm himself after making death threats to 16-year-old gunman Jamie Starkey.

In a trial in October 2009, Gee was found guilty of two counts of threats to kill and another two of blackmail. Jurors were unable to agree on the two more serious charges of conspiracy to murder and conspiracy to possess firearms and ammunition. As his second trial was about to start, Gee, formerly of Maryport Close, Everton, admitted the second charge. Prosecutor Ian Unsworth KC said Gee's desire for revenge "knew no bounds".

He was handed an indefinite prison sentence and was ordered to serve a minimum of four years behind bars before his case would be considered by the parole board. The sentence ran at the same time as the seven-and-a-half year sentence he was serving for drugs offences. Despite his barrister arguing he was "frankly terrified" by the thought of an indeterminate sentence, the then Recorder of Liverpool, Judge Henry Globe KC, said: "I am in no doubt that the public must be protected from you in the future. I really do not know when it will be safe to release you."

Speaking on an episode of Anything Goes with James English four years ago, Darren, who was jailed for nearly two decades for his role in organising a murder as part of a tit-for-tat street war, said his brother was a "very volatile individual". Recalling a memory of when he and his brother were housed together in a facility for youngsters involved in street crime, he said: "We're in Dyson Hall, we end up smashing the cell. We're getting twisted up by these men. They can't deal with us so we get separated. They burst the room, six or seven of them, he's scraping but they manhandle him. They're battering him. He's 12 years old, they've took him away and put him in the secure unit."

"...Next time we saw each other was in HMP Altcourse. Danny went into the secure system, whilst he was there they couldn't control him, so they used their methods to manipulate and condition him to the way they wanted him to think. He rebelled. The only thing they could do was put him in the gym."

"Three times a week Danny was getting took to a gymnasium to calm him down. All that did was make him big, strong and more disciplined. The next time we saw him he had red hair down here, which is why we called him the Hulk. The next time I've seen him is in Altcourse, someone has stepped on one of our toes, we put him in the hospital and smashed the unit down."

"We were separated in the prison system from that day on. I've never been in a prison with Danny. What we did as young offenders we could never be in the same prison system because of how volatile we were."

After Daniel absconded, Cleveland Police said he "is believed to have links to the North Yorkshire area, including Whitby, Carlisle, St Helens and Merseyside". A spokesperson added: "Anyone who may have seen Daniel Gee or may know his current whereabouts is asked to call Cleveland Police on 101, quoting reference number 098852."