42 | April• 2018
THE PRISONER AND THE GUARD
To Mc Av o y, i t w a s j u s t a not he r
jail.Butlandingherewouldprove
astrokeoffortune.BecauseDarren
Davis was anything but just another
prisonguard.Tallandbroad,witha
calm air of competence, Davis irmly
believed in the notion that everyone
deserves the beneit of the doubt, and
everyone deserves a second chance.
hat’s one of the reasons he became a
prisonguardintheirstplace.
“I feel it’s part of my duty,” he
says,“tohelprehabilitateandguide
individuals in their ambitions to
change.” here is no trace of cynicism
in Davis, which is pretty rare in his
circumstances.
After he’d slipped away from the
gym to his oice, Davis returned car-
rying a stack of paper he’d printed
from his computer. He handed it to
McAvoy.
“What are these?”
“The current British and world
records for indoor rowing,” Davis
said. Based on what he’d just seen –
it turned out McAvoy had pumped
outthose10,000metresinatime
an Olympic rower would be satis-
iedwith–Davisreckonedacouple
of world endurance records were
Hecrossed10,000metresofpre-
tend ocean and then stood up, his top
soaked with sweat. None of the other
inmatestookmuchnoticeofthe
26yearold.ButDavis,veteranguard
andthesportsandleisuretutorhere
atLowdhamGrangePrisonnearNot-
tingham, England, was impressed.
Davis, then 40, didn’t know much
about McAvoy. he convict had said
littlesincehe’darrivedthreemonths
earlierfromamaximum-security
prison up north. Davis sidled up.
“How fast did you do that?” he asked.
McAvoy gave him the number the
rowing machine had coughed up.
Davisnodded,thenexcusedhimself
and disappeared into his oice.
Two years earlier, John McAvoy had
received a life sentence for conspir-
acy to commit robbery and firearms
offences. He was a known criminal;
deep family roots in bank heists (his
stepfather was in prison serving life for
armed robbery and his uncle took part
in the renowned Brink’s-Mat gold bul-
lion robbery in 1983) pushed the boy
towards villainy. He had first been
held at the high-security unit at Lon-
don’s Belmarsh Prison, before being
relocated to Lowdham Grange.
O
NEAFTERNOONINNOVEMBER2009,
amidtheclankingofbarbellsinaprisongymin
theBritishMidlands,oicerDarrenDaviskepthis
eyeononeinmateinparticular.JohnMcAvoy,a
compact, baby-faced tank of a man, was working
out ferociously on a rowing machine.
PHOTO (PREVIOUS SPREAD): ALWIN GREYSON
