BRITAIN'S MEANEST STREET S; The UK's toughest investigative reporter, Donal MacIntyre, who faced down a gun-toting crackhead for his new series, brands Glasgow's underworld the worst in Britain.

Byline: By Annie Brown

INVESTIGATIVE reporter Donal MacIntyre claims Glasgow's underworld is the most 'savagely violent' in Britain.

MacIntyre said the city was the most brutal of the three he investigated for his new gangster documentaries.

The journalist also revealed he had been held at gunpoint by a crackhead who was a source for the programmes.

Liverpool and Manchester are both featured in the Channel Five series MacIntyre ' s Underworld but it was his Glasgow experience, to be screened a week on Tuesday , that he found most disturbing.

He said: 'I think the Glasgow film is the most chilling.The violence is more overt. It is much more explicit.

'Glasgow is a fantastic, vibrant and beautiful city but there is a savagery that permeates the underworld there. ' Glasgow is the murder capital of western Europe but for MacIntyre it was its notorious knife culture that set it apart.

For six months MacIntyre and his team shadowed criminal mastermind Paul Ferris and gangland enforcer Mark Clinton. Clinton was charged but acquitted of the murder of crime lord Tam 'the Licensee' McGraw' s henchman Billy McPhee.

Both Ferris and Clinton boasted on camera of using knives with impunity .

Ferris talked of when he was 17 and exacted revenge on a neighbourhood bully by scalping him.

Clinton is seen openly brandishing a lock knife on screen and admitted stabbing one man five times and slashing another for being cheeky to his dad.

Thug Clinton dismissed stabbing someone as ' the easiest thing in the world to do ' .

'It' s nothing,' he said. 'I just try to stab them as many times as possible to get them down.

'I stabbed someone once and the blade broke. ' MacIntyre said: 'Glasgow gangsters don ' t just execute you with a pistol.They stab you 25 times and will give you the Glasgow send-off with a knife up the rectum.They will humiliate you.'

According to the most recent crime figures, there were 9689 recorded offences of people caught carrying knives in Scotland last year. First Minister Jack McConnell has vowed to double the maximum prison sentence for possessing knives from two to four years.

The Executive is also to bring in tougher rules aimed at stopping shops from selling knives, particularly to teenagers.

The MacIntyre team were staggered that a machete or a knife could easily be bought for less than pounds 10.

And he was staggered by the cold-blooded brutality of Scotland' s knife crime.

He said: 'The execution of violence in Glasgow is so raw , so tangible.You can kill someone with a gun at a distance but to kill with a knife, you have to beup close and personal. It' s so in your face, that' s what struck me. ' Clinton claimed his brutish reputation lead police to charge him for the murder of drug dealer McPhee.

The killer stabbed him 27 times in front of terrified customers at the Springcroft Pub in Glasgow' s east end. Clinton said: 'They knew there was only two or three people in the city who would have done that, take out the main man in front of all his pals. ' Clinton also accused McGraw of turning up at the court with henchmen Craig Devlin and John McCartney to pressurise him into framing his nemesis Ferris for McPhee' s murder.

But Clinton called Ferris and the next day Devlin and McCartney were shot at east end bar the Royal Oak.

Clinton failed in a legal bid to stop the episode being shown claiming it was agreed he would see the film before it went out.

MacIntyre said: 'Clinton was a very raw , dangerous man.He was a foot soldier but Ferris and McGraw could never have survived without foot soldiers. ' FERRIS, in contrast to Clinton, remains calm and controlled throughout the film, portraying a 'charismatic' criminal.

MacIntyre said: 'Ferris is a chillingly composed, bright, intelligent and charismatic criminal who clearly has done some terrible, despicable things. He was in the premier division ofa killerHe was in the premier division ofHe wasHe was in the premier division ofa killerHe was in the premier division of gangsters, he ticked every box.' Greater Manchester police failed to retain an injunction stopping Channel Five broadcasting the first in the series on Tuesday .

The film featured Manchester gangster Desmond Noonan, 46, who was stabbed to death in a drug-related murder only days before the broadcast.

He was filmed confessing he was behind 27 killings.Police claimed showing Noonan on screen would discourage witnesses to his murder coming forward.

However only hours before the programme was due to be shown, the High Court in London removed an earlier injunction granted to police.

MacIntyre fears Clinton is also unlikely to survive for long. He said: 'I have continually said Clinton will not be long for this world but he assures me that he will be around for a long time.

'I think the film will be inconsequential, the crimes of Clinton will have long proceeded the broadcast of the programme. 'MacIntyre faced his own dangers in the making of the films. He was held at gunpoint with his producer Michael Simkin in a crack house in Liverpool that was the home of a source.

MacIntyre said: 'There were kids walking around while this guy and other s were smoking crack in the house.

'These kids were passively inhaling crack cocaine. 'The guy felt I wasn ' t giving him the

respect he felt he deserved. He could tell I thought he was scumbag.' MacIntyre tried to pacify him when he launched into a tirade demanding respect but the thug went upstairs and returned with a loaded gun. MacIntyre said: 'He red raw . jumped on me and pressed the gun in to my neck until it wasGive me respect'He was screaming 'I'll f***ing kill you.. ' The pressure from the Magnum hand-gun was so intense that it created a sore. He said: 'Michael was just talking him down like a kid. He was saying 'We do respect you' back and two bullets. Eventually he clicked the guncorner, sat back on the sofahoppedoutof the carriage.Then he threw the gun into the another line of crack. anddidhimself'Michael and I were cool in the moment but afterwards it really hit us and we were terrified.' MacIntyre refutes allegations that he has glamorised the gangland culture by showing it on screen. He said: 'Obviously we don 't condone the behaviour but in order to tackle this world you have to first see it and then understand it and then you can deal with it.

'We just told the story straight.' #MacIntyre's GangsterUnderworld:, Tuesdays on Channel Five at 10.55pm.

CAPTION(S):

CLINTON: Stabbing a man is the easiest thing in the world to do; FERRIS: Knife boasts