Lee Murray

Lee Brahim Murray-Lamrani (born 12 November 1977) is an English-Moroccan mixed martial arts fighter and convicted bank robber.

The couple's first child, Lee, was born in St Nicholas Hospital, Plumstead, on 12 November 1977, and was initially raised by his mother while Brahim continued to live and work in the Canary Islands.

Eventually he moved to England and married Barbara in 1984 and in 1985 she gave birth to Lee's only sibling, Rkia.

The family lived at 11 Buttmarsh Close, Plumstead, and Murray attended Foxfield Primary School, where he met his future wife, Siobhan Rowlings, three years his junior.

Murray's closest associates at this point were boys from Buttmarsh and the surrounding estates who called themselves the "Buttmarsh Boys;" described as "happy kids" who used to "play like normal kids on the estate," the boys fought to establish an internal pecking order and believed they had a duty to "look after" Buttmarsh, sometimes engaging in fights with boys from neighbouring estates.

A skinny youngster, Murray's preferred method of attack was running into battle wind-milling his arms around his head with a "manic" expression on his face, a maneuver which, combined with his protruding ears, earned him the nickname of "Alien," which he hated.

Murray had a difficult relationship with his father, who was often drunk and described as a "frightening, violent man" who was "volatile and domineering."

Largely absent from the first seven years of his life, Brahim demanded his respect and obedience, to the point of a police warning for mistreatment.

Eventually, Lee began to fight back against his father.

The next-door neighbour heard that Brahim "actually went and hit Lee and Lee snapped, just turned round and knocked his Dad clean out...once he realised he could take down a big man like that I think that's what changed Lee into the man he is now – a thug."

Their relationship grew so tempestuous that Brahim felt living together would result in a death so he moved out.

Barbara was then left to raise Lee and Rkia largely on her own.

At this time, Lee began attending Eaglesfield Boys School, which is where he met his eventual best friend and partner-in-crime, Paul Allen.

Murray, who enjoyed reading and puzzles, was a sub-par student mainly doing well in football, failing to make the school team.

Teachers found him unmanageable, he was expelled and found enrolment at Woolwich Polytechnic School to complete the statutory years of school.

By then, Murray was living on the streets and was a member of a gang based on the Barnfield Estate, with stealing and drug-dealing a part of everyday activity; he and his friends were allegedly in daily contact with Nigerian drug dealers who operated at Plumstead train station, and an eventual turf war broke out that saw Murray and his friends win a local territory in drug trading.

Murray was eventually convicted of possession of cocaine and cannabis, was named in the Old Bailey as a notorious London drug dealer who employed Paul Allen as his right-hand man plus a network of drug runners.

One of his best friends from this time was a local ruffian and future mixed martial artist named Mark "The Beast" Epstein, who claimed that he and Lee sold crack cocaine and Lee "made a lot of money from that."

Murray also proved himself adept at the more violent side of selling drugs, typically to control territory and make sure customers pay.

Murray himself claimed that "some people would probably say I was a bully, but a bully to me is someone that goes for easy targets and people who can't fight back. Me, I went for all targets."

Murray was known for punching people almost at random in the street, as well as habitually harassing a man who ran a local corner shop.

Murray was sentenced to a term at Feltham Young Offenders Institution, the first of his custodial sentences for what ranked as his more minor offences such as assault and thievery; others followed in Dover and Norwich.

Upon emerging from Feltham, Murray devoted energy to the gym, lifting weights and drinking weight-gain shakes to add bulk to his lanky, 6' frame.

Joining him was Allen, who by then was known as "The Enforcer", presumably from drug-dealing activity.

Murray and Allen were soon using steroids and spending the money they earned from selling drugs on luxury cars.

The police stopped Murray regularly, and, because they suspected he was a drug dealer, attempted to place an informer in his gang but could not gain enough evidence to prosecute Murray.

He was contemptuous of the police, often mocking and intimidating them on the streets, sometimes following officers around in his car.

Some officers at Plumstead Police Station told his biographer others felt wary, it would be best not to aggravate him and added "he's a very dangerous man."

Rowlings, Murray's girlfriend, gave birth to their first child, Lilly Jane on 24 December 1998.

Weeks later, Murray was caught up in a turf war with rival drug dealers that led to the arrest of Epstein and more than a dozen others, many ending up in prison.

In 2005, his MMA career was cut short after he was stabbed multiple times outside a Mayfair nightclub.

He was arrested in Rabat, Morocco, in June 2006 and sentenced to 10 years in prison in June 2010, for masterminding the armed Securitas depot robbery in Kent, England, where £53,116,760 of cash bank notes belonging to the Bank of England were stolen by Murray and his associates on 22 February 2006.

It was the largest known cash robbery in the world during peacetime.

After a foiled attempt to escape prison and a failed appeal, his jail term was extended to 25 years on 30 November 2010.

He is currently being held at a prison in Tifelt, northwestern Morocco, and despite being incarcerated fathered a child from prison in 2010.

In 2018, Murray in an interview stated he was training to fight in prison, and still planned a UFC comeback, with the hope of securing a pardon from King Mohammed VI of Morocco.

UFC president Dana White commented on Murray, that "He's a scary son of a bitch, and I don't mean fighter-wise".

On his mother Barbara Murray's side, Lee's family hails from Bermondsey, a densely populated semi-docklands part of south London between Tower Bridge and the Old Kent Road which is considered a traditional breeding ground for professional criminals, especially armed robbers.

Barbara was a hairdresser and later a telephonist.

On a holiday to Gran Canaria she met Lee's father, Brahim Lamrani, a kitchen hand from the southern Moroccan city of Sidi Ifni.