After the paintings were returned to Mr Barrymore (again via the US and British Customs with no problems), he contacted a man called Freddie Brazil. Now Freddie Brazil had a large number of contacts and it was hoped that he could sell the paintings through one of his contacts. I would like to state that at this time I did not know any of the people so far involved. Since my prison sentence I have met Freddie Brazil on only 3 occasions to the best of my knowledge.

We now get on to how I became aware of the paintings and my subsequent involvement with them. I first heard of the paintings at a family celebration from a friend of my younger brother named Norman. After talking about the paintings I expressed an interest in them with a view to a possible purchase. A meeting was arranged with Freddie Brazil who held the relevant paperwork (Affidavit, Solicitors Statements, Customs Papers etc.) and a receipt was given to me at the end of the transaction.

(I was charged with Handling Stolen Property Knowing It to be Stolen. These means that you are aware or suspect these goods to be stolen, which is clearly NOT TRUE in my case.)

I had purchased these paintings to sell on to contacts of mine in Italy who I had worked with for some time. I knew that I would make a profit from the transaction but was unsure of exactly how much. While I was waiting for news from Italy I met a man called Mark Hughes while out drinking in the Castle pub in Tooting. The conversation got onto the paintings and Mark whom I had know for a number of years mentioned that he knew of a buyer who might be interested in the paintings. I agreed that there was no harm in seeing this buyer as I had not made a deal for the paintings yet. Mark agreed to arrange a meeting with this buyer and it was left at that.