Former gangland enforcer Brian Cockerill has revealed how the tragic suicide of his brother led him to crack-cocaine addiction and depression.

The former "Taxman" speaks candidly about his struggles with drugs and his former underworld life in a new documentary called Back to Life.

Hartlepool filmmaker, Paul Suggitt, has directed the short video which is currently available to watch on YouTube.

In it, Brian speaks honestly about his associations with notorious Teesside figures like Lee Duffy as well as the fact he's now a changed man.

Suicide of brother

One of the more poignant moments of the documentary details how the once-famed Middlesbrough hardman took a downward spiral after his brother committed suicide.

"When my brother hanged himself in 2006, it was the worst time, he'd been raped as a child and I didn't know", he says on camera.

"So I was looking for this bloke (the perpetrator) all the time, and he'd died, the man. But it drove me over the edge, and we were on drugs. "

Brian Cockerill
Brian Cockerill

He added: "I stayed in my bedroom for six full months and never went out the bedroom once.

"I had a toilet in there and a shower and I never went downstairs for six months."

He added: "I taxed £70,000 from someone and I just sat there and done it in in three months, I just didn't stop.

"Every single day it was like crack, crack, crack, crack, crack - that's the only way I could escape it, self medicating and it wasn't doing any good whatsoever."

Introduced to drugs

Brian Cockerill during his time as a young weightlifter


Brian, 54, who now dedicates himself to educating wayward youngsters, also explains his connections with Lee Duffy, and how Duffy introduced him to hard drugs.

"He turned me to the dark side, he was like Darth Vader and I was Luke Skywalker", Brian says.

"I didn't even know what a drug was I'd never seen one. I started taking coke with him, and then we had crack.

"It was alright at first, it was a giggle. But then, I was getting arrested every other day, anything that happened in the area I'd get blamed."

But after numerous jail terms and dealing with the stress of his criminal activities, the turning point in Brian's life was when his long-term partner left him, which coincided with the death of his dog.

"I got up one day and I said to myself; 'you're supposed to be Britain's hardest man, people are saying you're in the top six fighters in the world, get off your a*** and do something', so I got up and thought 'right, this is it'.

"And since then I've been off, I've been clean.

"I don't do drugs, I don't even think about them now."

Brian Cockerill
Brian Cockerill

Bodybuilding career lost

The documentary also reveals how Brian's drug habit cost him "three film" roles as well as a potentially lucrative bodybuilding career.

But the film's lasting message is simple, a life of crime can only end badly.

"I should have been killed a thousand times, I don't know how I'm still here, but if there's a God, I'm here for this purpose.

"I've had about 20 partners with me who have taxed and all have been shot and killed, stabbed and killed or doing life in jail.

"Crime doesn't pay in the end, believe me."

A Facebook page called The Resurrection of Brian Cockerill has been set up which encourages people who may feel at a loose end to get in touch.

Brian then meets them for training sessions or speaks to them about their mental health in a bid to help.

Brian Cockerill - Back to Life can be watched here.