"We were a gang of friends doing a job together, " he says.

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Andrew had been celebrating his cousin's 30th birthday in March 2003 when, in the city's Hanover Street, he bumped into a girl and, despite apologising immediately, was chased by a gang of her friends.

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"I know respect from your friends, your crew, your gang on the estate is important, " he said.

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" This was a serious statement from one of John's good friends, an African American ex-gang member from Detroit who, as John said, "would die for me now, just like I'd die for him.

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After authorities accused him of shooting a policeman, Kelly escaped into the Australian bush and formed the Kelly Gang with his brother and two friends in April 1878.

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He is the leader of a gang of "droogs" - the name given to his friends in the book's language Nadsat - a mix of Russian and English slang.

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The jury heard the men had been school friends but later drifted into rival groups, with Mr Brown joining the Lewsey Farm gang and Mr Beckford becoming a member of the Marsh Farm gang.

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Michael McIlveen, a Catholic schoolboy, and known to family and friends as Mickybo, had been out with a friend, in May 2006, when they were chased by a gang.

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