John Cunningham and brother Harry Smailes, who have been reunited after 67 years apart

TWO brothers who were cruelly torn apart when they were children have been reunited after 67 years.

But, due to a twist of fate, Harry Smailes and John Cunningham have lived in two vastly different worlds. While one became a law-abiding family man, the other grew up to be a notorious criminal.

After being beaten and neglected by their parents, Harry and John were split up and sent to different children’s homes.

Harry was cared for by the Barnardo’s charity, grew up to join the merchant navy and become a manager at an engineering firm. His only brush with the police was to be caught driving at 33mph in a 30mph zone.

But baby brother John was put into a Roman Catholic orphanage where he was brutally beaten by staff. He grew to be one of Newcastle’s best-known criminals, raking in a fortune from armed robberies.

For most of their lives, Harry and John were not even aware of each other’s existence . . . until relatives began researching their family trees. Now, the two men have finally been reunited.

Harry, 71, said: “It felt strange but as soon as I saw John I knew straight away he was my brother. Despite everything he’s done, we hit it off and we get on very well. He’s told me all about the crimes he’s done and I don’t have a problem with it”

John, 67, said: “It’s unbelievable to think we were born to the same mother and yet we went on to live such different lives.”

The tragic tale dates back to 1941 and a terraced slum on the outskirts of Bishop Auckland, County Durham. Harry was four and had never known his father.

The little boy was living with his mother Eileen Smailes and her new partner Peter Cunningham, who was jobless and resented having to raise his illegitimate stepson. The resentment grew worse when Eileen gave birth to Peter’s son John.

The family has managed to get hold of a Barnardo’s report which details the suffering. Written under Harry’s name, is the word “Illegitimate”.

It then reads: “The mother’s husband was lazy. He ill-treated the mother and Harry and said that the trouble was caused by the presence of Harry in their home. There were constant quarrels because he said that Harry was having food that his own child should have and that he ate too much.

“He often beat the boy, who was terrified when he was in the house.”

Harry was taken into care and spent the rest of his childhood in Barnardo’s homes in Scotland and Essex. Soon after, John was also taken into care and his parents wound up serving six months with hard labour for neglect.

It was then that John was put into care. He ended up in St Mary’s Orphanage, at Tudhoe, County Durham.

John said: “It was a brutal world. We would be flogged for the slightest thing. I remember they would strip you naked and force other boys to hold you down while the male staff hit you with the birch or even cricket stumps.

“The nuns would just look on. They knew what was going on. If you wet the bed, you were forced into an ice-cold bath. We’d have to get up for prayers at 6am.

“I’d run away from the homes but I got caught by the police. I’d tell them what was going on but they just threw me back in the homes anyway. It was then I began to develop a deep hatred for anyone in authority.

At the age of 16, John was sent back to his mother, by then living in the West End of Newcastle, but grew up amid squalor and violence and ended up in borstal by the age of 19.

It was around then, he recalls, he was told that his father had died. He said: “I never cried and I still can’t bring myself to cry about anything. That is what a brutalised childhood does to you.”

John soon graduated from petty crime to safe-breaking and bank robberies.

However, his cunning ability meant that he was rarely caught and only spent around four years in jail.

He said: “We must have got away with hundreds of thousands of pounds in the 1960s and 70s. That money would be worth millions now.

“There was one job in the 1970s where we got half a million pounds . . . and that was just one of hundreds.

“But I blew it all. I saw friends die in their 40s and I’ve always believed in living for the day. I was a womaniser and we used to live the high life, driving around in flash cars. I even gave a lot of the money away.

“It wasn’t the money that motivated me. It was the sheer desire for revenge.”

Twice-divorced John, who now lives in a three-bedroom council house in Kenton Bar, Newcastle, said: “I’ve got five children that I’d plead guilty to and perhaps 10 that I’m not sure about. I’ve also got at least nine grandchildren.

“My children always say I was a remote father and I regret that.”

Harry, who is married with two children and one grandson, and lives in Aylesbury, Buckinghamshire, said: “I believe the way we have turned out is all down to which children’s home we were sent to.

“I was sent to Barnardo’s and I was treated well. I joined the Merchant Navy when I was 15 and ended up as a manager at an engineering firm.

“But it could have all been so different.”

By Nigel Green

Source: sundaysun.co.uk