Kray man resigns as jail warder

Reggie Kray follows his brother's coffin at the funeral in 1995

A prison warder has resigned after he admitted doing "security" work for the jailed gangster Reggie Kray.

Adam Coope, 23, quit as a warder at the privately-owned Lowdham Grange jail near Nottingham.

Among the work he did the work for Kray was organising the guarding of his brother Ronnie's grave at his funeral in 1995.

Mr Coope said he resigned "to save the prison face", but he denied doing anything wrong.

He said: "Everything was totally above board and was basically a security operation."

He added that prison managers were told of his past by someone with a grudge against him.

"I was called into the office and was asked if I had worked for Reggie Kray. I said I had and agreed to resign on condition I was given a good reference and to save the prison embarrassment."

Mr Coope, of Nottingham, is now working as a doorman after his resignation in February.

A spokesman for Premier Prison Services who run Lowdham Grange jail confirmed Mr Coope had resigned but refused to comment further.

Reggie Kray, 64, and his twin brother Ronnie, who died in jail of a heart attack in 1995, were arrested on May 8, 1968.

A year later, an Old Bailey jury was told that in a feud with a rival gang, Ronnie shot George Cornell dead in the saloon bar of the Blind Beggar pub in the Mile End Road, east London, and Reggie stabbed Jack "The Hat" McVitie to death in a flat in Stoke Newington, north London, because he had threatened his brother.

The twins were convicted of murder and sentenced to life imprisonment, with a recommendation that they serve not less than 30 years.

Earlier this year Reggie Kray's parole was refused, sparking attacks from his lawyer and his wife Roberta, 39.