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Soccer star's dad in drugs and vice shock
By Mazher Mahmood, Investigations Editor
MILLIONAIRE soccer ace Jermaine Pennant's father is the evil muscle-bound boss of a seedy crack den, the News of the World can reveal. The man credited with guiding the £6.7million Liverpool star to success runs the secret drugs empire at his sleazy council flat.
We filmed Gary Pennant there selling cheap rocks of killer cocaine and deadly heroin as a constant stream of addicts and prostitutes shambled in.
Video: See shocking footage of Pennant's father selling drugs
DEADLY GAME: Gary shoots up heroin under photo of his famous son (main picture) ON HIS WAY: Dad and Jermaine at 15 (inset)
While Jermaine is scoring on the pitch, dad Gary is busy lining his pockets helping low-life punters score in his living room, right in the heart of a no-go Nottingham crime zone.
FAMILY SHAME: Gary told how son, Jermaine, gives him cash On Thursday our undercover investigators got inside his dingy two-storey lair. Dreadlocked pusher Pennant, 43, sold them three rocks of crack and a wrap of heroin, then bragged: "It's top sh**. See for yourself. Just let me know if you need any more, you're safe!"
But safety is his last concern. Our team watched in shock as Pennant's dad INJECTED heroin into a call-girl customer then used the SAME needle on himself.
Meanwhile three men were upstairs having sex, all at the same time, with another hooker out of her head on drugs.
A Jamaican henchman called Tee told us: "Drugs, gang-bangs, anything you like goes here. It's cool. If you want to take one of the bitches you can.
"Buy them a rock and they're yours."
Our team had followed the tracks of scores of junkies who traipse up to the seventh-floor hangout on Highhurst Street, in the city's notorious Radford district, day and night, to buy their fix from Pennant, known on the streets as G.P.
A crack addict hooker called Lilly Anne told us: "Gary sells the best gear round here and doesn't rip you off. If you want brown (heroin), he's your man.
"If you want a dig (to inject heroin) he's got the needles and stuff and you can do it in his place, no problem. He serves up to all the working girls round here."
Gary's football hero son Jermaine is 25 next week and still close to his dad.
He was brought up on one of Nottinghams's roughtest estates by Gary's vice-girl lover after his mum walked out.
While £25,000-a-week star Jermaine managed to avoid the city's drug scene, dad Gary has become one of its biggest pushers.
This week, inside his run-down flat we found several men and hookers sat around a wooden table. Muscular Pennant Snr was holding court wearing nothing but a pair of boxer shorts as he lit up a crack pipe.
Inside the dimly-lit room, with a pink bedsheet nailed to the window to keep out prying eyes, the stench of heroin and crack cocaine filled the air.
Photographs of Jermaine— currently dating Hollyoaks star Jennifer Metcalfe—were proudly displayed on the walls and propped above a three-bar electric fire.
Beneath the pictures lay a blonde hooker, in her 30s, on a dirty mattress.
HELPING HAND OF DEATH: Gary injects punter who can't find vein. (left) SHARP PRACTICE: Preparing fix (center) DONE DEAL: Gary gives us drugs (right)
She struggled to find a vein to inject herself with heroin, but G.P. happily offered his services.
He tied a makeshift tourniquet around her arm and pumped the deadly drug into her arm with a syringe.
The call-girl, wearing a skimpy red blouse, immediately slumped back as the heroin took effect. Incredibly Pennant then refilled the syringe with heroin from a small dish and used the same needle to inject himself in the leg.
Other junkies in the room sat chatting casually as they inhaled heroin fumes by heating up the brown powder on a piece of foil. Another girl and a man sat smoking a crack pipe.
Throughout the evening customers trooped in to buy drugs. A large sheet of wood was propped against the door of the lounge to slow down police in the unlikely event of a raid.
Upstairs other druggies sat on the floor smoking a pipe made from an old can and a straw.
In one of the bedrooms a brunette hooker, high on drugs, lay on the bed having sex with three men at once.
Mental
Our reporter sat on an old speaker box and watched as Gary sold drugs to four different customers. He argued with one girl who felt she hadn't been given her money's worth.
"What you pay for is what you pay for!" Gary told her.
SO HIGH: Vice girl Lilly puffed heroin After a couple of hours, now high himself, Gary put on a red T-shirt and left the flat. One of his dreadlocked pals explained: "He's run out of crack. He'll get another supply coming to him soon.
"People are in here all night and they'd go mental if they didn't get their sh*t."
Gary returned about half an hour later and carried on his sordid trade. Two of his vice girl regulars, blonde Lilly Anne (pictured right ) and brunette Hayley (below right), bought heroin but took it outside the flat to smoke in private.
The pair were sprawled on the concrete steps of the stairwell. Lilly Anne, who offers sex from £20 a time, told how she had been awake for three days and nights.
She said: "I've been taking crack and I'm coming down now with brown (heroin)." Hayley, who charges £40, was wearing a red coat and a micro-skirt which showed her knickers.
She asked us: "Did Gary serve you? Has his crack arrived yet? I'm waiting to get some more off him."
Lilly Anne boasted how she had met her dealer's celebrity son on several occasions.
"I knew Jermaine when he was round here," she bragged. "He still comes to meet his dad sometimes but he doesn't go to the flat.
"He gives Gary a couple of grand every now and again but won't give him big money because he knows he's a smackhead.
DESPERATE: Hooked hooker Hayley "Jermaine's been in trouble in the past, too, but it's nothing like the things his dad gets up to." In fact Jermaine was arrested in January, 2005 and charged with drink-driving after crashing his flash Mercedes into a lamp-post in Aylesbury, Bucks. He was already on a driving ban at the time and had no insurance.
Bungs
When nicked he was more than twice the legal limit and gave his name as pal Ashley Cole to cops. He later pleaded guilty and was jailed for three months. After an early release he made history by becoming the first professional footballer to play with an electronic tag around his ankle.
But, after stints at Notts County, Arsenal, Birmingham City, Watford and Leeds United, Jermaine's millionaire life could hardly be further removed from his dad's.
It's not the first time Pennant Senior has landed his son in controversy. In 1999, the dad was embroiled in a bungs investigation after two agents were charged by the FA over Jermaine's £2million signing to Arsenal. It was revealed that Gary had received £700 in cash at a service station as part of a £10,000 backhander.
Last week at his drug den, Gary confided to our source : "Jermaine still looks after me, he sees me all right with a few quid." Jermaine was NOT present inside the flat during any of the drug deals that we video-taped.
Before we left the flat our man said that he wanted some cocaine and heroin. Gary stood up, reached in his jacket pocket and pulled out a small see-through plastic bag containing three small rocks of crack.
He then handed over a small ball of brown powder tightly wrapped in cling film. "It's £35," he said.
Our man handed him two £20 notes and just like he was selling groceries in a corner shop Gary calmly said: "I'll get your change."
He returned a few minutes later and handed our reporter £5 in coins.
A Home Office-approved lab confirmed the drugs were genuine—and illegal.
Our shocking dossier of video evidence is available to the police
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