An Old Bailey trial has exposed a violent, long-running feud between two North East organised crime families, the Sayers and the Freemans, amid growing fears that Middlesbrough's recent unrest and the fatal A66 crash are linked to wider gang activity. CCTV showed crime boss John Henry Sayers, 62, and his son, 29, attacking Walter Patterson, 38, with a machete and iron bar after he set fire to their car and rammed it into their Newcastle home; both were cleared of grievous bodily harm on grounds of self-defence, while Patterson, described as a Freeman gang "foot soldier", was jailed for four years alongside four accomplices. Policing experts warn such gangs recruit "expendable" and vulnerable children through county lines operations.

The trial, moved outside the North East over jury nobbling concerns, heard of a sustained campaign against the Sayers family, including a van arson in September 2022, a truck rammed into a relative's property in May 2023, a vandalised grave in October 2024, and a car set alight in January last year, all attributed to individuals linked to gang boss John Freeman. Freeman himself was jailed for three years in 2019 for a violent fake drug deal. Michael Cahill, one of five young men killed in last Saturday's A66 crash into a police car, was pictured at Freeman's trial with masked associates, and a relative reportedly paid tribute to him online, while rumours suggest Freeman is helping cover funeral costs for the crash victims.