POLICE investigating the murder of Tyneside hardman Viv Graham eight years ago have arrested five men.

They are being questioned at different police stations over an alleged conspiracy to murder the 34-year-old.

Graham, a father-of-four, from Walkerville, Newcastle, was shot three times as he left the Queen's Head pub in Wallsend, North Tyneside on New Year's Eve in 1993.

He died four hours later in North Tyneside Hospital.

The ex-heavyweight boxer ran a chain of pub and club doormen and his killing was linked to gangland violence.