The reformed killer who was one of the heroes of the London Bridge terror attack has spoken of the moment he tackled killer Usman Khan - and his friendship with one of Khan's victims.
Manchester killer John Crilly was the man with the fire extinguisher in the video showing the London Bridge terror attacker being challenged by a man with a narwhal tusk.
Crilly was filmed using the high-powered foam to incapacitate Khan, 28, who was later shot dead by police.
"At first, I thought throw that at him then I thought I could spray it and soak the belt, maybe short-circuit the belt," the 48-year-old said in his first interview with the Mirror.
"I started spraying him and it seemed to do the job. I was spraying it in his eyes. He was all covered in foam and then he came bursting through it again with the knives."
He described how Khan had gone for the door and he followed him out. "He started heading to the bridge and I remember just seeing all these people and screaming at them to move."
He and a Fishmonger's Hall porter wielding a narwal tusk chased after Khan.
"I keep spraying him," Crilly continued. "He can't see and that gives the whale guy a chance to give him a poke."
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They then jumped on Khan, even though they thought he was wearing a live suicide belt.
"Another guy caught him off balance and took him down and then we all just jumped on him", he said.
Khan tumbled on John's back as he got his right hand and "I'm trying to get the blades off him, and then the police were there, telling us to back off him.
"They immediately tasered him. They took their time to shoot, it wasn't all gung-ho.
"They kept telling him to stop moving. I was shouting: 'Just shoot him'. They shot him twice and he was still moving. They shot him again."
John, who now lives in Cambridge, was freed on licence in 2018 after the law on joint enterprise was changed.
A former heroin addict, he was part of a burglary in Manchester that went wrong as his co-defendant killed Augustine Maduemezia, 71, with a single punch.
In February 2005, Crilly and an accomplice, David Flynn, then 38, broke into a council flat in Millhead Avenue, Miles Platting, and Flynn punched Augustine, who died after he suffered severe head and facial injuries.
The pair ransacked his flat, stealing a mobile phone and blender.
Originally convicted of murder and robbery, he was freed after he admitted manslaughter.
He remains profoundly sorry for the death and his life has "been spent wishing that day never happened".
Turning his life round, he forged a close friendship with Jack Merritt, 25, who was killed by Khan.
Jack attended John's Open University graduation after he'd studied for a law degree while in prison.
"If I'd met Jack much earlier in my life, maybe things would have been different", he reflects.
He started using heroin three decades ago when his mum died suddenly as it numbed the pain.
Recalling the events of the terror attack, he had been chatting to friend and ex-prisoner Gareth Evans, in the hallway outside the Learning Together conference at around 2pm, and heard shouting.
Minutes later he saw Khan's other victim, Saskia Jones, 23, at the bottom of the stairs, bleeding. Khan stood there "jumping about like a mad man."
"It didn't take too long to realise what was going on. Without stereotyping, he had a big beard, two knives shouting 'Allahu akbar'. He was wearing a suicide belt."
He began shouting at him. He told Crilly: "I am going to kill you all." John screamed at a woman who was walking towards Khan to get away, so he got hold of her and pulled her back up the stairs.
Khan lunged at him with a knife. He picked up a lectern from the bottom of the stairs and ran at him. "It snapped in half like a big stick, so I went for him again with it."
Another man appeared with the narwhal tusk. He hit at him with a chair and Khan lost his balance and went flying. "He was swinging the knives all over the place and obviously he's got the belt".
Saskia was still alive when they got out of the front door as Gareth was screaming at her to stay awake.
He describes Jack as "just special. He never looked down on anyone, he always tried to see the best in everyone."
After his conviction was quashed, he told BBC Radio 5 Live: "I wasn't a violent drug addict. I was lost. I was lost in drugs.
"I had a bad life, I've changed it, but I wasn't guilty of murder.
"I totally accept what I did and it was wrong. That's important to me. I am not a murderer."
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