In an exclusive interview with Sun Online, former underworld enforcer Freddie Foreman said Richard Osborn-Brooks had a right to defend himself because his life was at risk.
FORMER Kray twins hitman Freddie Foreman has called for hero pensioner Richard Osborn-Brooks to be handed an award for bravery.
Foreman, 86, who was convicted of helping the notorious twins dispose of "Jack the Hat" McVitie's body, claimed Osborn-Brooks was simply “doing what any man would to protect his home and his family.”
He said: “Every man's home is his castle and that burglar has gone in there armed with a screwdriver to raid him.
"That old boy has fought him off - and could have got killed himself.
"So he should get some kind of bravery award for what he did.”
Our exclusive interview comes after the premiere of a new documentary film, Fred, which recounts the story of the retired gangster's life.
Foreman - whose son Jamie starred in Eastenders as Derek Branning - also revealed he fought off an intruder who tried to raid his West London home two years ago.
The former underworld enforcer said: “I could hear this guy shouting and screaming my name outside so I opened my door and a young guy in his 30s busted in past me and started trying to nick my stuff.
"He clearly wasn’t right in the head so I had to drag him out the room and get rid of him. I was really angry.
“If he had got violent with me, I would have done something I regretted. I would have ended up killing the b*****.
"How can I cope with it? I was on my own. I was thinking what can I do if it does get out of hand. I would have probably thrown him out the window or something.
“So Osborne-Brooks is right to do what he done. His life was at risk.
“Naturally your self-survival sense kicks in and you do what you need to do.”
Foreman - who was known as “Brown Bread Fred” - retired nearly 30 years ago after he was imprisoned in 1990 for 10 years for the then record £7million Security Express heist.
He had been snatched by Spanish cops in the Costa Del Sol and taken back to Britain after being on the run since 1983.
The retired gangster - who also worked as a minder for 1950s gang boss Billy "King of the Underworld" Hill - also hit out at the current spate of stabbings shootings in London and the loss of young lives.
He said: “That would never have happened in my day. It was never like that. I can’t believe the stabbings and shootings going on at the moment and how young some of the victims are.
“Anyone who did something like that back then was chastised. They didn’t get away lightly.”
Referring to Tanesha Melbourne, 17, who was shot dead in Tottenham at the beginning of April, Foreman asked: "How can someone shoot a 17-year-old girl?”
He added: “It is terrible and just getting worse.
“In my day, the people who done that would have been shot.
"Anyone who took liberties was dealt with - it didn’t matter where they were in the UK - the old firms in them days had a long reach and they would have sorted it out.
“It was like an old firm network that took care of liberty-takers and problem-makers.
“I see these killings and know that would never have happened in my time.
“I can’t think of anything in my day when youngsters were shot and stabbed like this.
“It saddens me that all the old firms are broken up now and can’t deal with it.
“It was known as organised crime but it was organised security.
“People would rectify those that took liberties. It was an unwritten rule.
“The people doing these stabbings and shootings of youngsters today are scum. Lowlife scum.”
Foreman has also spoken for the first time about last year’s clash with Eddie Richardson, 83, after the rival gangsters reportedly bickered in the pews at the funeral of Great Train Robber Tommy Wisbey, 86, who had been Foreman’s best man at his wedding.
He said: “On my way to the funeral I had tripped on the pavement and caught my face on a step and did my nose in and it was bleeding.
“When I got to the funeral I sat down in the pew and a bit in front of me was Eddie and his wife June - who I have known for years.
“She turned around and said hello and gave me some tissues to help with my nose as did a few other ladies.
“Richardson poked his head around and started mouthing off so I went off at him about how I once put a gun up his nostril and all that years ago.
“He is mouthing off and everyone is looking around and telling him to shut up.
“Even June was telling him to shut it.
“I said to him: ‘You got anything to say, I’ll see you outside.’"
But they were talked out of causing a scene at the funeral by pals after the funeral in New Camberwell Cemetery, South London, and the old enemies left it.
Wisbey - who was a close pal of both men - got 30 years' jail for the 1963 train robbery.
He said the idea of the documentary came about after his godson Christian Simpson and his friend Steve Wraith introduced the retired gangster to director Paul Van Carter from Salon Pictures -who encouraged Foreman to tell his story.
The film traces his entire life and he talks candidly about his regrets about getting involved with the Kray Twins, having originally been pals with their older brother Charlie.
Fred with close pal Steve Wraith, godson Christian Simpson and director Paul Van Carter at the premiere of Fred
The retired gangster said he is going to donate any profits from the film to MacMillan’s cancer charity.
He said: “They have looked after members of my family very well in the past. Both my wife and my sister-in-law were looked after brilliantly in their last days.
“They were terrific and they do a really great job so that is why I am donating something to them.”
He jokingly added: “And I'll be needing them myself in a few years time.”
Fred was screened at the East End Film Festival on Friday.
It is available for digital download on May 28 and the DVD is released June 4.
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