Who is Daniel Gee? Gangster feared he would 'never see the light of day again'

A notorious gangster said he feared he would “never see the light of day again” .

Daniel Gee is back in custody after being arrested in the New Springs area, near Aspull, a town in Greater Manchester. Gee absconded from Kirklevington Grange prison in the north east just under a month ago.

Gee, now 44, was jailed indefinitely for the public’s protection in 2010 after a secret probe caught him conspiring to buy guns and threatening to kill a teenager. The then 30-year-old was plotting to arm himself after making death threats to Jamie Starkey - the 16-year-old gunman who shot him during a New Year’s day confrontation in 2008.

READ MORE: Moment Daniel Gee led away in cuffs as police surround 'pub'

READ MORE: Daniel Gee smiles as he is arrested outside Wigan pub

Liverpool Crown Court heard one of the bullets went into Gee's stomach, pierced his lung, and went straight out of his back. He was taken to hospital after the shooting, but refused treatment.

The court heard Gee had terrorised Mr Starkey's family for months. Jamie was killed after being shot six times, outside his house on Higher Lane in Fazakerley, by a man in dark clothes, shortly before 8pm on Sunday December 2, 2012. He was 21-years-old.

Since Mr Starkey's murder, five men have been arrested and the weapon used to kill Mr Starkey has been recovered – but no-one has yet been convicted of the killing. Yesterday the Ministry of Justice confirmed Gee had absconded from prison.

Family connections

In the mid-2000s, Everton's Grizedale estate was turned into an open-air drugs market by violent criminals. Ordinary families had to look the other way as local gangsters tried to turn a residential estate into an enclave exempt from the rule of law.

The Grizedale was home to Gee brothers Darren and Daniel, who dominated the backstreets and alleyways on the north Liverpool estate. During a trial over the 2009 murder of Tony Bromley, Liverpool Crown Court heard the men were 'kingpins' in the area, who led a violent gang that controlled the streets of Grizedale

At the time Andrew Edis QC said: "The Gees are associated with very serious violence and drug dealing. There are criminal convictions against them which amply support what I have just said.”

Police set up a community task force based at Walton Lane police station to try and target the Darren and Daniel's crime group. When the two brothers fell out with a rival crime group gang it resulted in a spate of shootings. Craig Barker, a friend of the Gees, was shot dead on the estate.

In retaliation Darren Gee organised the cold blooded murder of David Regan, who owned a car wash in Old Swan. In the same year criminal associates of the brothers let off a wave of massive car bombs outside nightclubs, family homes and police stations.

Daniel 'Danny' Gee was jailed indefinitely in 2010 for conspiring to buy guns and threatening to kill teenager Jamie Starkey. Darren Gee was handed 18 years behind bars in 2006 for planning the revenge shooting murder of dad-of-five David Regan.

Darren previously told the ECHO he realised he "wasted his life" and bitterly regrets the decisions he made when he was involved in serious crime. In 2017, Darren and Daniel's brother Stephen Gee was jailed for brutally robbing an OAP while high on cocaine and his dead brother’s anti-psychotic medication.

Stephen Gee pretended to be a Liverpool City Council officer to con a 77-year-old widower after he caught him kerb-crawling. He made the pensioner drive home to show him ID, where he demanded the elderly victim hand over a £1,000 ‘fine’, or £100 deposit.

When the OAP said he didn’t have any cash, the thug punched him in the face, before repeatedly kicking and stamping on him. Gee then stole the victim’s car, but left a can of Coke on the sideboard, revealing his DNA.

The then 36-year-old told Liverpool Crown Court he went off the rails after his brother Billy Gee, 38, was tragically found hanged in 2016. Gee, of Maryport Close, Everton, admitted robbery and at the time of his 2017 Liverpool Crown Court appearance had 22 previous convictions for 44 offences, including robbery and violent disorder.

He was jailed for six years and eight months, with an extended four years on licence.

'I really do not know when it will be safe to release you'

When handed the indefinite prison sentence in 2010, Gee said he feared he would never be released.

His barrister, Stuart Lawson-Rogers QC told Liverpool Crown Court his client had only conspired to arm himself because he feared another confrontation with the Starkey family. He claimed Gee had been targeted because of his underworld family name and revealed his greatest fear was receiving an indefinite sentence because he believed he would never be released.

Mr Lawson-Rogers said: “He is frankly terrified that if the court imposes an indeterminate sentence he will never see the light of day again”.

But the Recorder of Liverpool, Judge Henry Globe QC 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.”

Gee's desire for revenge 'knew no bounds'

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 QC said Gee’s desire for revenge “knew no bounds” after he was shot by Starkey outside the Salisbury Arms pub on Anfield’s Pulford Street.

Within hours of the 5am shooting he was planning his revenge. But Mr Lawson-Rogers told the court had been in severe amounts of pain and trauma after Starkey’s “murderous and unprovoked” attack.

Gee absconds from prison

Gee to serve a minimum of four years behind bars before his case could go before the parole board. The sentence ran at the same time as the seven-and-a-half year sentence he was serving for drugs offences.

The ECHO understands Gee, now aged 44, was later transferred to a Category D open prison, from which he has absconded. The Ministry of Justice confirmed the news on Tuesday, May 28.

A Prison Service spokesperson said: “All prisoners in Category D prisons are robustly risk-assessed and absconds are rare. Offenders who break the rules are punished and face extra time behind bars and we are working with the police to recapture this prisoner.”

An abscond is an escape that does not involve overcoming a physical security restraint. According to the Prison and Probation Service, Category D prisons have minimal security and allow eligible prisoners to spend most of their day away from the prison on licence to carry out work, education or for other resettlement purposes.

If an offender fails in an open prison, they are not permitted to return to an open prison for at least two years.

Don't miss the biggest and breaking stories by signing up to the Echo Daily newsletter here