Torment of torturers' victims

Police likened it to the films Pulp Fiction and Reservoir Dogs but this was not some backstreet in Los Angeles. It was Brighton, Eastbourne and Worthing.

Detective Sergeant Paul Phelps said: "It beggars belief that anyone can commit such acts of gratuitous violence, that anyone could inflict such pain and injury on total strangers.

"These are psychotic people who have left mental scars that will stay with their victims for life."

Mr Phelps said it was only good fortune no one died. He is convinced the two offenders would have killed, had they not been captured.

Robinson and Atkins embarked on a summer of terror by attacking and robbing people they suspected of being involved in drugs.

The torture was inflicted as they worked their way around the underworld community in search of the 'Mr Bigs' with cash, drugs and weapons stashed in their homes.

They relied on their victims not reporting the crimes for fear of being prosecuted themselves.

But their information was wrong. They picked on innocent people, mostly in their 20s, who went straight to the law.

The two men, originally from London and both with strings of previous convictions, plotted their campaign from a £750-a-month one-bedroom flat at Merton Court in Brighton Marina.

It was being rented by Robinson's girlfriend Michelle Wilcox, 22, who stood by her man in court, saying she had no idea her lover was involved in drugs.

Atkins travelled from his home in London to join Robinson for the launch of their campaign.

They barged into a terraced house in Portland Street, Brighton, at 11.30pm on July 14, 2000, and told the occupant Ignatius Powell, they were looking for a man from Bedford.

They tortured Mr Powell, punched, kicked and hit him with a gun, bound and gagged him and threatened to cut off his genitals.

Robinson stubbed a cigarette on Mr Powell's face and Atkins poured a kettle of boiling water over their victim's genitals.

The torture lasted several hours and at 3am, Mr Powell's friends Adam Slade, Richard Allum and Phillipa Cornell entered the house.

They were ordered to lie on the floor at gunpoint.

Mr Slade was pistol-whipped, beaten and had boiling water poured on him.

He begged them to say what they wanted: "They demanded £30,000. Then my arms and legs were tied with flex and I was stamped on.

"Someone cut my jeans right down the middle of the leg and said: 'I am going to cut your d*** off'.

"I was barely conscious. I felt boiling water splash on my back - at least one kettle full."

Mr Slade blacked out and came to as he was being taken to hospital: "My left eyelid was split and my nose was a mess."

There were screams from Miss Cornell to get the police and Robinson and Atkins fled. They dumped two guns in the grounds of the Royal Pavilion and later went back to recover them.

The pair struck next the following month.

They ordered a 'friend', Leon Glass, 18, to get into their car at gunpoint.

They drove him to an address in Ceylon Place, Eastbourne, where they tied up Mr Glass, the occupant, Ashley Taylor, and a third man, Richard Smith.

Robinson demanded £64,000 but none of the victims had that kind of cash.

Mr Taylor was made to lie face down on the floor. He was trussed up with shoe laces and then hit on the back of his head.

Robinson and Atkins took Mr Taylor to the home of Christopher Flux in Havelock Road, Eastbourne.

Mr Flux was tied up along with Susan Coombes, 16 at the time, and Dave Lee, who was dragged from his bed.

Mr Flux was threatened with a gun and a hot iron. He was hit on his forehead with a gun and tied up on the floor. His trousers were removed and a knife was put to his genitals. He was told: "I will cut your f****** d*** off."

Robinson put a bullet in a gun and threatened to kill Mr Flux's family and friends. The offenders left with £2,000, DVDs, mobile phones, a PlayStation and laptop computer.

Mr Flux told The Argus the gunman told him: "Say goodbye to everyone."

The interior designer, 28, thought he was going to die.

He said: "They tied up me and my friends and beat the crap out of me with pistols, hitting me round the head and stamping on me.

"It was the longest two hours of my life. I thought they'd come to rob us but the whole thing was surreal."

Mr Flux, who is still living in Eastbourne, will carry a scar on his forehead for the rest of his life. There are mental scars as well and he takes sleeping pills and medication for depression.

Raised in Newhaven and educated at Tideway School, he wants Robinson and Atkins behind bars for good: "I don't want them free to inflict the kind of pain we suffered on anyone else."

He and his friends are still suffering mentally.

Some want to spend time with the attackers alone to mete out summary justice.

Mr Lee, 26, a psychiatric nurse at Eastbourne District General Hospital at the time, was tied up and forced to lay face down in the lounge with his friends. He thought he was going to die.

He said: "I was hit on the forehead with a gun and round the face. I knew the bloke they were after but only by name - I didn't know what was happening."

Mr Lee, who is now living with his family in Yorkshire, is also on sleeping pills and said he freaks out every time he sees anyone resembling Robinson or Atkins: "I get flashbacks. I can't sleep at night and just wander round the house.

"I'd love to have half-an-hour alone with these blokes for a bit of payback."

Mr Flux's girlfriend at the time, Sue Coombes, is self harming and cuts her arms after being tied up and forced to watch the beatings.

She is being treated for depression and suffers panic attacks.

The 17-year-old, now living away from Sussex, said: "They ruined all our lives. I just can't see any future for me."

Sussex Police had two operations running, Oboe in Brighton and Alcopop in Eastbourne, but it was not long before they were linked.

Confirmation came when police attended a domestic incident in Rottingdean, Brighton, and a former friend of Robinson's, Miranda Reading, told how she had been imprisoned at a flat in Brighton Marina and punched in the face by him.

Detective Constable Dave Field, who was working on Oboe, put two and two together.

Officers, including members of the armed Special Operations Unit, had Robinson and Atkins in custody five hours later.

The pair were stopped and arrested in a car on an approach road to the marina and two guns were found in the flat.

A third gun was discovered after a similar beating-robbery in Worthing. The offender fled, dumping the weapon and a pair of track suit trousers. That gun was linked later to two shootings in London.

In the trouser pocket, there was a stocking mask which carried Robinson's DNA.

The victims refused to make complaints and no charges were laid.

Another victim in Worthing was recruitment manager Sabeena Surrey, 39, who fell for Robinson in August last year.

She lost £55,000 to him during their brief relationship and on one occasion, while she was in her luxury flat, Robinson drove away her BMW convertible sports car.

He called later demanding £1,000 to return it. He later used the same vehicle for more crimes when he and Atkins were freed following a court hearing in Eastbourne.

Sussex Police wanted authority to further detain them but this was denied despite police objections.

Atkins answered his bail but Robinson went on the run. More terror and brutality followed.

Robinson shot Albert Robinson, 35, in both legs in Kilburn, north London, after demanding £500.

Robinson, with Atkins this time, tortured and shot a man in the chest in Brixton nine days later. The victim leapt out of a first-floor window.

By this time, Sussex Police had alerted Scotland Yard and the Murder Supression Team, which targets offenders flagged up as potential killers, joined the hunt.

They sprang into action after a drive-by shooting in Southwark, London. No one was hit but shells from a deadly Uzi-style machine gun were found.

DNA in the getaway vehicle matched Robinson's and he was arrested after a police chase in Deptford High Street.

Robinson and Atkins were nailed by an avalanche of forensic evidence and testimony from people who picked them out at identity parades.

Mr Phelps paid tribute to the force telecom unit which traced the offenders' mobile telephone calls, the force fingerprint bureau, scenes of crime officers and the forensic science service.

He said: "Together, they helped take out of society two of the most dangerous men I have come across.

"There is only one way I can describe them. Animals."