NME: From The Bender Squad to The Gremlins; Inside Newcastle's Football Hooligan Firm

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Newcastle Gremlins are a football hooligan firm associated with the English football club, Newcastle United F.C.

Now he has been found guilty of inciting two teenage boys to engage in sexual activity on the internet, abusing his position for his own gratification. The man, who the Chronicle has agreed not to name, said: “He said he was a football hooligan to groom and intimidate people when he never was. He used the Gremlins name to impress some young people and to threaten others. It worked both ways. But he was never a member of the Gremlins.”Often decisions are made that knifes won't be used but other weapons are acceptable. But just because there is some co-operation to arrange the fights doesn't stop things like ambushes.

By 4pm, the number of Toon thugs at the Belle Vue had reduced, with Kapke and associates Noel Renton, Lee Mattinson and Gary Hewitson seen milling around the doorway before leaving.According to Mr Dennis, the breakdown of the family structure has left men without vital restraints on their behaviour - their traditional roles as husbands and fathers. The result, he says, is a heady sense of freedom that manifests itself in thrill-seeking. A team of detectives working from Tynemouth area command moved in to arrest the main suspects and confiscate mobile phones to trace the transactions. Norman Dennis, a visiting fellow of Newcastle University and director of community studies at the London think-tank, the Institute for the Study of Civil Society (Civitas), believes the problem of hooliganism is a by-product of modern society.

Suttle spent more than two hours drinking with around 25 notorious football yobs in Darlington’s Hogan’s Pub. I have known him for a lot of years through going to football games,” he said. “He just seemed like one of the lads, he was as normal as you get. He wasn’t a football hooligan, but he was a regular. He went to home and away games, so most people knew him.”October 2003 - Mann involved in infamous "battle of Breda". One of 89 people arrested in Holland before the game.

He was seen at the Star Inn, in Newcastle city centre, before travelling with other hooligans to the Belle Vue pub, in Gateshead. Associate Norman Short has been at the forefront of battles involving Magpies hooligans in recent years. NME, From the Bender Squad to the Gremlins, attempts to cover every major event in the world of Newcastle football violence over the last five decades. Throughout the latest proceedings, Mann maintained his innocence. He said: "Sometimes I feel like giving the whole thing up but why should I? I have got nothing to hide." But the hooligans had not realised their goading text messages and taunting calls were to lead police straight to the organisers.Suddenly my jaw went boom and it was hanging down to my knees. My lips were cut, and the inside of my mouth was filled with blood. Membership is difficult to prove, there is apparently no membership card or list and no written rules for joining. The occasional risk supporter will give themselves away by their actions. James Young for example, has a tattoo on his leg which states ‘Newcastle Gremlins’ and Norman Short upon arrest once shouted: ‘Is it because you know I’m a Gremlin?’ The former thug, who once dubbed himself “the General” of the notorious hooligan firm the Gremlins, has a long history of football violence, having followed the Toon at home and abroad intent on causing trouble. A lot of people have said that football hooliganism is a class thing or and education thing but I don't agree with that.