Now living in Weardale, convicted murderer and one time notorious playboy Dennis Stafford has come clean in an uncompromising account of his life. Marjorie McIntyre looks at the life of a man who has continued to hit the headlines across five decades.

IN January 1967, Dennis Stafford had already organised a champagne party to celebrate being cleared of a gangland murder - so confident was he that the jury would return a 'not guilty' verdict on him and his co-defendant Michael Luvaglio.

But the pair's celebration plans were scrapped just moments after the jury filed back into Number One Court at Newcastle's Moot Hall. With the 'guilty' verdict resounding in their ears, both men were led away to begin life sentences.

The drama of that moment marks the opening of a new autobiography of Stafford, whose quiet lifestyle in his home at Stanhope Castle in County Durham is in marked contrast to his days as a Fun Loving Criminal - the apt title of his biography written by journalist, Stafford Hildred.

Established biographer Hildred has already chartered the lives of John Thaw, Roy Keane, Rod Stewart, David Jason and Joanna Lumley before turning his attention to Dennis Stafford, the man who inspired the blockbuster film, Get Carter.

Warts and all, Stafford gives a fulsome account of his life, from his beginnings in the East End of London to his reluctant retirement in Weardale.

Forty years ago, the North-East was buzzing over the murder of Luvaglio's friend, Angus Sibbet, whose body was found in a Jaguar car under a bridge near South Hetton. Stafford and Luvaglio were charged and tried for the shooting but asserted their innocence from day one.

The introduction to the book begins on that bleak morning four decades ago, when, until the jury returned to the court room, the champagne was waiting to be uncorked. In Stafford's words: "There was no evidence, no motive and surely no reason to fear the outcome of the trial. Both of us knew that we were completely innocent and we were sure that once this legal lunacy had run its ridiculous course we would be cleared.''

It is a sentiment to which both Stafford and Luvaglio have continued to hold firm.

Stafford was born in London, the son of a successful and hardworking bookmaker who also ran a pub. But in Stafford's own words "the straight and narrow was never my road''.

Though short in stature, Stafford was blessed with devastating good looks, an attribute which led him into the company of London's gliteratti. Also endowed with an incisive and quick-thinking brain and a ready ability to turn on the charm, Stafford readily admits if he had followed a straight path he could easily have reached the top of the tree.

Instead, he embarked on a career as a housebreaker - a route which was interrupted in 1956 when he was "grassed up'' by an informer who planted a Luger pistol in his car.

Although it was his first offence, Stafford was given a seven-year sentence. But it was a sentence he had no intention of serving and, along with another inmate, Anthony Hawkes, he escaped from jail and went on the run to Newcastle.

In the anonymity of the North-East city they began what was to become a thriving clothing and textile business. Under an assumed name, he even found himself a guest at the annual police ball.

He was later recognised, however, and went on the run again, heading back to London before slipping off to Trinidad where a telegram from a girlfriend was to reveal his whereabouts and find him back in police custody to accompanying newspaper headlines of "the playboy crook''.

Extradited to Britain, he was sentenced to a further 18 months, this time in Dartmoor, from where he and fellow prisoner Bill Day escaped. There followed another re-arrest, which this time saw Stafford serving out his sentence until 1966 when he says he was determined to go straight.

With a new girlfriend, the American singer Salena Jones, Stafford went into business with Vince Landa (the brother of Michael Luvaglio) and came back to Newcastle, this time in the gaming and club scene. It was a fateful move which led to him being arrested for Sibbet's murder, to his serving 12 years in prison and to his tireless bid to clear his and Luvaglio's name.

Along the way, Stafford owned a nightclub in London, which was to become a favourite for the rich and famous, and where he met many of the beautiful women who were to play such a significant role in his life. It was one of his former girlfriends, the actress Jill Bennett, who was instrumental in having the escapades of the man, who once described the Kray Twins as "pussycats'', turned into the script for Get Carter.

Stafford would also set a legal precedent when he successfully fought and was compensated for a Home Secretary's ruling to keep him behind bars for two years after the completion of his sentence.

Speaking about the book from his Stanhope home, Stafford, who accepts he is "no angel'', remains adamant of his innocence in the killing of Sibbet and of his conviction that the police have played a continuing and proactive role against him.

With prison now far behind him, he believes it is "totally unjust'' that he still has to report to his probation officer and cannot leave the country - even for a holiday - without permission.

Now content living with his wife Merle and son Shay, Stafford has had a mercurial life which has seen him become a millionaire one day and a jailbird the next. But at the age of 73, he wants nothing more than a chance to live a decent life with his close-knit family.

"What I really want to do is to spend the rest of my life living abroad with Merle and I am actively seeking the opportunity to do just that," he says.

His autobiography pulls no punches and includes photographs from his heyday; with many of the women he knew and loved, his arrests and the wedding photograph of Merle and himself.

Like him or loathe him, his story is a fascinating account of a man whose philosophy remains: "If you get knocked down you have to get up again. If you feel sorry for yourself you get nowhere. I am not into self pity. You get nowhere on that.''

* Fun Loving Criminal: The autobiography of a gentleman gangster by Stafford Hildred (John Blake Publishing Ltd, £17.99).