Who is Ricky Killeen and where is he now?
IF your sentence is serious enough, you will be sent to HMP Frankland, which ended up being a destination for Ricky Killeen.
The prison is notorious and is designed to break you, for somebody who idolised prison life, it ended up being a rude awakening.
Who is Ricky Killeen?
Ricky Killeen was born in Newcastle.
At an early age he moved to South Stanley in County Durham.
It was a rough area, his father had already spent 14 years in prison and he admits himself, all his role models were from a life of crime.
His mindset was one that from childhood his sole goal in life was to go to prison.
Violence was something that became second nature with the environment he had grown up in, it was something he became used to and had a big impact on his life.
Why did Ricky Killeen go to prison?
Despite being in trouble with the police from an early age, his first real scrape with the law was when he had a violent altercation with someone at a house party.
He hit somebody and knocked them out before attacking them with a bottle.
When released for this, with a section 18 charge impending, he told police they needed to lock him up as this was not going to stop there.
Killeen knew his life was heading down the wrong path at this stage and wanted to be taken out of the situation he found himself in.
Two weeks before he was due to be sentenced for the previous incident he had an argument with someone on the phone.
He and a friend stormed over to the individual’s house, kicked their back door in and attacked them with a machete.
Ricky Killeen was given an IPP (imprisonment for public protection) as a result of this crime, seen as an alternative to a life sentence which could only be given to somebody who had committed murder at the time.
He was given a 99-year sentence for the machete attack and sent to HMP Frankland.
As somebody who had always wanted to go to prison, he found being sent here to be like “going to Disneyland”.
Killeen served five years of his IPP before he was released on license.
What does Ricky Killeen do now?
After being released, he looked to get his life back on track and bought a burger van before then getting himself a café on a building site and a mobile valeting service.
By this stage Ricky Killeen had got married and had four kids and as he described himself “life was pretty good”.
He sold his businesses and bought a recovery truck and started trading cars.
Having been out of prison for nine and a half years, he was offered a stolen car and stupidly accepted it.
On his way to sell the car, he crashed it and got away but six months later he was arrested and recalled to prison.
During the height of the covid pandemic, prisoners were locked up for 23 hours a day, this led to a change in Killeen’s life.
Struggling with his mental and physical health, having ballooned to 19 stone, he started to focus on physical exercise.
This led to him giving personal training advice to other inmates, while channelling himself by writing a book during his time served.
When he was released, he started studying a diploma to do his gym instructor/personal trainer Level 3 accreditation.
He also released his own clothing line called Ruthless Fitness.
His book “Behind the Bars – Ruthless Fitness” is not just aimed at inmates but anyone struggling with their own mental health and wellbeing.
Ricky Killeen is now looking at taking over a gym where he feels he can motivate people even more.
In addition to this he runs a YouTube channel called “Behind the Bars TV” and has an Instagram page called Ruthless Fitness.
Asked what his advice would be to people in prison who want to make a change he said “Don’t give up on your dreams and you’ll find almost anything is possible.
“Make the rest of your life the best of your life. Don’t let a bad situation bring out the worst in you, and choose to be positive.”