The attacks were carried out with a degree of coordination that 'bordered on military precision'. The aim was 'to do as much damage as possible in the shortest possible time'.
The morning after, one fire chief told the Manchester Evening News: "It looks like an orchestrated conspiracy to do large-scale damage." But the man police strongly suspected of being behind the 'terror blitz' was nowhere to be seen. "Few men in recent history have so successfully cowed local people or displayed such arrogance. Little burned down public buildings to show his power, organised marches to antagonise the police, intimidated magistrates, journalists and crime witnesses and publicly brutalised those who crossed him."
And the security business gave him the perfect platform to move into the drugs trade. Using a combination of extreme violence and intimidation, Little soon established himself as Stockport's self-styled 'Mr Big'. But in reality he was a feared underworld figure who flouted his wealth by driving around town in a £50,000 convertible Mercedes. And the arrogant gangster wanted everyone to know who held the real power in his hometown.