The former head of a notorious football hooligan gang who is now an acclaimed author, film-maker and public speaker has told the Standard how he is “living proof” anyone can turn their life around.
Jamaican-born Cass Pennant, 57, was adopted by an elderly white south-east London couple in the 1950s. As a child, he suffered years of racist bullying —- making him feel he was “worthless” with “no talent”.
He became the leading face of the ICF (the West Ham-based Inter City Firm), one of Britain’s most violent football gangs, in the late Seventies.
In 1980, he was sentenced to four years in prison. After a second prison sentence, he was shot three times point-blank as a result of a previous feud with another football gang. Pennant now regularly visits prisons, schools and other groups to relay his story and stop others from falling into violent crime and hooliganism.
That story was turned into the 2008 film Cass. The film, directed by Jon Baird and starring Nonso Anonzie, Nathalie Press and Leo Gregory, is screened tonight for the first time on British television on the Standard’s sister station London Live.
Speaking to the Standard, Pennant — who has had cameo appearances in a number of films including Green Street, The Hooligan Factory and Svengali — said he had found his calling in life: inspiring others from similar tough backgrounds to make something of themselves.
“Everyone has more than one path in their life,” he says. “I am proof that you can turn your life around.
“I never preach or tell people not to do certain things — it doesn’t work. I just tell them my story and how I tried to make sense of my life through writing books in prison and how that then led to where I am now. I want to open doors for them and open their eyes.”
Cass airs tonight at 10pm on London Live.
