A prominent television news journalist is living under a death threat from human traffickers following a confrontation with small-boat gangsters in northern France.
Patrick Christys, who presents the Tonight current affairs show on GB News, has told The Mail on Sunday the threat is so serious that the Metropolitan Police ordered him to abandon his home in the small hours of the morning.
Christys and his heavily pregnant wife – fellow GB News presenter Emily Carver – were warned the intelligence services believed their lives were at risk because of his work exposing people smugglers in Calais. They were told to pack their bags and hide with friends.
Today, recounting his ordeal for the first time, Christys says he is angry and exasperated by the failure of the British authorities to tackle the gangs, who he says operate in plain sight.
He is also concerned his young family were exposed to danger when the Metropolitan Police disconnected their panic alarm without warning. In one chilling episode, Christys says he was tracked down on a London street by a trafficker from Calais. Twelve months on, the couple have round-the-clock security.
‘This is personal for me,’ he said. ‘I want everyone to understand the reality of who we’re letting in to our country. These human traffickers wanted to kill me in my own home while my wife was eight months pregnant.
‘Who knows if they’d have tried to harm my wife and son in order to get to me? It makes me incredibly angry that we let illegals into the country – who we all pay for. Then we let those same people make millions of pounds trafficking yet more illegals to Britain.
‘They feel so emboldened, they thought they could kill a TV journalist in his own home and get away with it.’
Patrick Christys told The Mail on Sunday that he is living under a death threat from human traffickers following a confrontation with small-boat gangsters in northern France
The couple’s extraordinary story began in July last year when Christys started identifying human traffickers and alerting the authorities.
‘I realised how easy it was to track them down,’ he explained. ‘They advertise on TikTok. Then to talk about locations, times, prices, you move on to WhatsApp.
‘Yet nothing seemed to be done. So, we decided to front them up ourselves.’ Christys and a camera crew arrived in Calais at 9am; by midday he had confronted three smugglers, receiving death threats in the process. But it was on his return that the ordeal began.
‘I was broadcasting live on TV when my wife called me in an ad break saying ‘You need to come home, the police are here. Someone wants to kill you’.
‘I got back just after midnight on July 25. The police read out an official ‘threat to life’ notice.
‘It said, ‘As a result of your recent journalistic coverage of organised crime groups in northern France we are aware that members of those organised immigration crime groups are seeking to actively engage with you to cause you significant harm.’
The officers themselves were more direct.
‘They said, you need to get out of your flat right now. Pack a bag, don’t drive your car – which might be booby trapped – book a black cab. Go to a safe house. Get out of here and don’t come back.’
On July 26, the Met fitted a panic alarm and, a few days later, the couple were allowed back home.
‘Meanwhile, I decided to carry on at work as normal – as if nothing had happened,’ he continued. ‘I was bundled in and out of the office in secret. The police told us to disguise ourselves if we went out.’
Christys and his heavily pregnant wife were warned the intelligence services believed their lives were at risk because of his work exposing people smugglers in Calais
Patrick and Emily – both 34 – were still coming to terms with the threat they faced when their son, George, was born just a few weeks later. And it was then, stepping out of the hospital for a cigarette, that Christys found himself shaken for a second time.
‘One of the people I’d exposed in Calais was a runner for a trafficking gang. He wore a distinctive ring with a design like the Palestinian flag. I saw someone in the corner of my eye – this same guy – walking towards me. He walked up to me, paused and I thought, ‘This is it. He’s going to do me’.
‘We locked eyes and he held my gaze, and then walked off. I’m 100 per cent sure it was the same man. It’s an incredible coincidence or a chilling signal.’ There was further anxiety a few weeks later when the couple were told the police wanted the panic alarm back.
‘When the contractors turned up to take it away, I pleaded with them to leave it. But they said the alarm had already been disconnected for ten days because the police didn’t have enough. They’d switched the alarm off without telling us!’
The intelligence services have never withdrawn their warning and are unlikely to do so. And the couple remain in the dark about who wanted to kill them, and how. Even last night, the Metropolitan Police made no comment.
‘All the police could say was that they’ve had some information from the intelligence agencies. I don’t blame the Met for not telling me more – they hadn’t been told themselves.’
The effect on the family’s life, meanwhile, has been profound. Christys has security when he goes to and from the office, and GB News pays for nightly patrols on the street where they live.
While he accepts the constraints the police are under, the presenter is less forgiving about the wider situation.
‘The intelligence services will say they’re working to take down these gangs at source in Afghanistan, Iran or Pakistan but, so far as I’m concerned, they’re not doing enough in northern France or here in Britain.
‘You’ve got to remember these gangs are often based in this country. One of the human traffickers I exposed had a WhatsApp profile picture holding two automatic weapons. These people are the real deal.
‘These are frightening times, especially in the light of what we’ve seen happen to Ann Widdecombe and the firebombing at Nigel Farage’s home. We’re asked to put a huge amount of faith in the Metropolitan Police and the intelligence services; I’m not sure that’s entirely safe.
‘I’m never allowed to know exactly who wanted to kill me and I’m not allowed to know if the threat has gone away. It’s just left to hang over us like a dark cloud.
‘But I want to let these monsters know that if their intention was to scare me into silence, they failed. I’m going back to northern France in the next few weeks. GB News and I think this is important journalism and we won’t be intimidated.’
