Liverpool FC Forum

by **Paul C** » Tue Jun 20, 2006 2:54 pm

What a kn0b, he's got a 3 year old kid, from The Mirror:

CORRIE STAR ON CRACK
Craig Charles
TV Craig's 60 hits in just FOUR hours
Exclusive by Stephen Moyes

CHIRPY Coronation Street favourite Craig Charles went on a crazed crack cocaine bender during a four-hour car journey, the Mirror reveals today.

The 41-year-old star took an extraordinary 60 hits of the highly-addictive Class A drug as he travelled north after finishing work.

Using an empty lager can as a makeshift pipe, Charles repeatedly sucked in fumes from burning crystals of crack cocaine.

During the nightmare trip he interrupted his frenzied drug-taking only to flick through the pages of a stack of pornographic magazines.

At one stage, his eyes rolling wildly,Charles appeared to slip into a stupor - his mouth opening and closing wordlessly as he gripped a head rest for support.

Our revelations will stun millions of soap fans who know Charles as the Street's lovable cabbie Lloyd Mullaney.

But the Mirror watched on Friday as Charles, a married dad of three, bought £600 of crack from his regular drug dealer - meeting in a dimly-lit street in the shadow of the BBC's studios in Portland Place, West London.

He strode out of the BBC Studios just after 10pm - seconds after finishing the funk show he hosts on the BBC digital radio channel Six Music.

Charles, who calls his weekly drug sessions "Naughty Friday" looked around nervously as he used his mobile to ring the dealer known as Fire.

As he waited for the drugs to arrive he went for a pint of lager with two friends in the nearby Stag's Head pub.

After 40 minutes his phone rang.

He took the call, then walked briskly from the pub to a pre-arranged meeting point.

Within seconds a white van pulled up and the Liverpool-born millionaire leaned into the front passenger window.
He handed over the money and 30 a huge grin spread across his face.

Charles, wearing a white shirt and dark jacket, then walked to the next street where his personal driver was waiting in a Skoda Octavia to drive him from London to Manchester.

At the car, he climbs into the back seat. But as the driver starts up the engine Charles says: "One second mate."

The actor then puts his drugs on the seat and takes an empty Stella can from a carrier bag.

The puzzled driver asks: "Are we good to go?" But a pre-occupied Charles mutters: "One sec, one sec, one sec..."

He carefully makes a dent in the side of the can then produces a pin and pokes it into the thin metal to produce a series of tiny holes.

Charles then gingerly rips open a small bag of crack cocaine, tipping the crystals into the dent.

He uses a cigarette lighter to heat the crystals until they are smouldering. Then he raises the can to his mouth, greedily sucking in the drug fumes through the tiny holes.

As the crack enters his bloodstream his eyes flutter and he sinks back against the car seat.

He lowers the can from his mouth and in almost a whisper tells the driver: "We're good to go."

Charles, who gained a cult following playing Lister in early 1990s BBC2 sci-fi comedy Red Dwarf, is now ready to unwind on the four hour journey north.

He directs his driver to a nearby newsagent and instructs him to buy some porn magazines.

As he lifts the makeshift crack pipe for his second hit of the night, he tells the driver: "Do you mind?

"I can't do it, f*** it. They'll spot me a mile off. Spend £20."

Charles loads more rocks of crack on to the can. But the drug is already fuelling his paranoia and he peers nervously out of the car window to see if he is being observed.

Satisfied he is safe, he lights the drug and again inhales.

It is just minutes since his first lungful of fumes. But his appearance is already transformed. He is almost unrecognisable as the popular soap star. His face is puffy and his eyes are bulging.

The sweat begins to soak his shirt as he feverishly turns the pages of the porn magazine, stopping only for the occasional puff. As the car heads away from London along the A40 he asks the driver to stop at a garage.

He complains that one of the magazines is foreign and he cannot understand it.

Charles pleads: "You couldn't stop off at this garage, get some English ones?

"I'll give you the money when we get there, yeah?"

The driver gets two more magazines and they set off. Charles seems delighted with the additions to his porn collection and celebrates with a series of rapid hits of crack. Inside the car the sound of the drug crystals crackling as they burn can be clearly heard.

Charles seems deep in the grip of the deadly drug. His eyes wild, his lips pursed, he grasps the headrest in front of him and rocks backwards and forwards.

Slowly, he peels off his jacket to reveal his open necked sweat-soaked white shirt is clinging to his skin. The traffic is getting heavy. But Charles takes hit after hit, seemingly oblivious to the motorists sitting in their cars just a few feet away.

By now his hits are into double figures. He is sniffing and twitching his nose.

At one stage, fearing he has dropped some drugs, he sparks his cigarette lighter. By its flickering light he carefully searches the car seat for any precious crumbs that might have escaped.

At midnight, just under 90 minutes into the journey, Charles seems dazed. He gazes into space, lost in his drug-high.

He gulps for air and slowly opens and closes his lips. He appears to be almost trying to chew the fumes.

The driver stops at a service station on the M6 to use the toilet and make a phone call. But when he leaves the car Charles's paranoia sends him into a frenzy.

He clumsily shoves open the passenger door and yells: "Come back, Dick!"

Less than a minute later he leans out of the car again and shouts: "Come back, mate. Please!"

Seconds later, his eyes wild, he repeatedly yells the same phrase: "You can talk and drive, mate. Please! You can talk and drive, mate. Please! You can talk and drive, mate. Please!"

The driver returns and Charles apologises, admitting: "I was quite para...paranoid there."

Ten seconds later the makeshift pipe is back at his mouth. But the Stella can has taken such a battering he needs to make a new one.

He pulls out a Red Bull can and repeats the earlier process.

Another garage stop is soon necessary because the driver needs to refuel.

Charles now seems calmer and asks the driver to buy him two more porn magazine - taking the total to nine.

Despite being in a near-stupor, the actor clearly realises the journey is nearing its end. The sudden realisation spurs him to a new frenzy of drug-taking.

He starts shovelling crack crystals on to the can, burning the drug and smoking the fumes at least every five minutes. By now he is having trouble holding his head upright.

He mouths words but makes no real sounds.

His curly hair is matted with sweat and areas of his face appear to have been singed by the fumes.

In all, has smoked an incredible 60 hits of deadly crack cocaine in just over four hours.

Finally the car pulls up at a rented Manchester flat - the bolthole he uses to idulge his drug habit away from his family home in Camden, North London.

The end-of-terrace flat is in a fashionable area of the city just 200 yards from the Coronation Street set.

But inside it looks disgusting - like a scene from the junkie movie Trainspotting.

Each room is covered in a sea of ash and soot from Charles's previous cocaine binges. The cooker is caked in dirt and white powder. Burn marks dot the hobs and the soot and ash spills across the work surfaces and onto the kitchen floor.

A stool in the lounge still has telltale signs of a drugs session - cigarette stubs, ash and more white powder.

The lounge floor is covered in stains, with multiple drink spillages having been left to fester.

A clear plastic bag is strewn next to an old green sofa which wouldn't look out of place on a rubbish dump.

For a start, it is clear the stomachchurning toilet has not been flushed for weeks.

The bedroom has no furniture except a mouldy, dirt-infested single mattress. There is no blanket or bed sheet and newspapers.The matress is surrounded cigarette lighters, traces of cocaine and what appear to be pint glasses filled with urine.

During his marathon crack sessions he is clearly unable to leave his bed even when nature calls.

Everywhere you look, cigarette butts litter the floor and overflowing ash trays lie abandoned.

Half-empty glasses of booze, plates of mouldy food and drink cans are discarded seemingly at will.

Blinds are drawn across the front windows and green-painted door of the flat to ensure passers-by get no glimpse of the sordid world within.

Charles uses the flat to get high away from his wife Jackie, 42, and their daughters Anna-Jo, eight, and threeyear- old Nellie.

The star also owns two sprawling million pounds homes, one in Hamp shire and the other on the outskirts of Manchester.

Charles, who has a 17-year-old son Jack from his previous marriage to Band of Gold star Cathy Tyson, has earned a fortune from TV.

He boasts of pocketing up to £500,000 a year through his Coronation Street salary and BBC Six Music radio contract.

But despite his wealth the flat has been recently repossessed because of rent arrears.

Several letters and telephone voicemail messages remain, telling Charles that he must pay up.

And two weeks ago British Gas warned he was about to be cut off because of an unpaid bill.

Meanwhile, outside the flat it is 3.15am on Saturday - and Charles is in a terrible state.

He can barely stand upright as he stands by the car attempting to stuff the porn magazines and crack cans into a plastic bag.

For some minutes he staggers back and forth between the flat and the car and in the confusion manages to lock himself out.

The driver takes him to the nearby Castlefield Hotel but they tell him they are fully booked.

He tries the Victoria and Albert Marriott hotel but is not capable of checking himself in.

It is left to the driver to pay for his stay using his credit card. He escorts Charles from the hotel reception to his room.

Finally, Charles disappears behind the closed door, still clutching his crack cans.

And another Naughty Friday draws to a close.

The Mirror will be making its dossier of evidence available to police.

by **Lando_Griffin** » Tue Jun 20, 2006 3:23 pm

I have 2 questions:

1.) How can the paper know such details?

2.) WTF are you doing believing it?

The Mirror "revealed" Fowler was a smackhead, even though it was a load of old b*llocks.

IT IS ALL BULLSH*T!!!!!

by **Paul C** » Tue Jun 20, 2006 3:42 pm

Lando_Griffin wrote:I have 2 questions:

1.) How can the paper know such details?

2.) WTF are you doing believing it?

The Mirror "revealed" Fowler was a smackhead, even though it was a load of old b*llocks.

IT IS ALL BULLSH*T!!!!!

What even the pictures of him doing it in the paper from the hidden camera in the car!!!

Believe it now? :;):

by **Lando_Griffin** » Tue Jun 20, 2006 3:50 pm

Paul C wrote:
Lando_Griffin wrote:I have 2 questions:

1.) How can the paper know such details?

2.) WTF are you doing believing it?

The Mirror "revealed" Fowler was a smackhead, even though it was a load of old b*llocks.

IT IS ALL BULLSH*T!!!!!

What even the pictures of him doing it in the paper from the hidden camera in the car!!!

Believe it now?

Ah well - you never said that!

I still won't believe it until I see them.

by **Paul C** » Tue Jun 20, 2006 4:01 pm

Lando_Griffin wrote:
Paul C wrote:
Lando_Griffin wrote:I have 2 questions:

1.) How can the paper know such details?

2.) WTF are you doing believing it?

The Mirror "revealed" Fowler was a smackhead, even though it was a load of old b*llocks.

IT IS ALL BULLSH*T!!!!!

What even the pictures of him doing it in the paper from the hidden camera in the car!!!

Believe it now?

Ah well - you never said that!

I still won't believe it until I see them.

Not a problem fella

by **Rafa D** » Wed Jun 21, 2006 7:31 pm

I like Craig Charles in Red Dwarf - that is all.

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Craig charles on crack - B3llend

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