The rise and fall of gangland's 'King of the Hill’'

Damon Wilkinson recalls ruthless notorious member of the Hillbillies' feared for his brutality

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STEPHEN 'Aki' Akinyemi revelled in his reputation as a 'true bad man' about town. A 'trusted lieutenant' in the notorious Cheetham Hillbillies, one of Manchester's most feared gangs, he was known as the 'King of the Hill.' 

A regular face in the city's bars and nightclubs with a taste for Champagne and the high life, he drove a silver Porsche with the personalised number plate 'AKI! But his years of living on the wrong side of the law would eventually catch up with him.

The Hillbillies, also known as the Cheetham Hill Gang, sprung up in the early 80s from the council estate around Waterloo Road. Stepping into the void left by the downfall of the Quality Street Gang and other established figures in the city's underworld, the ruthless and ambitious young mob built their reputation through a string of meticulously planned and executed armed robberies, before moving into the drugs trade.

In April, 1989, Chinadu Iheagwara, then aged 22, and an accomplice, raided Coin Control, a currency depot in Royton, Oldham. Iheagwara hacked at a middle-aged security guard with a machete, almost severing his leg, before his partner-in crime shot the stricken victim three times in the groin and thigh.