A well-known TV news presenter says he is facing a credible death threat from suspected people-smuggling gangs after confronting small-boat traffickers operating in northern France.
Patrick Christys, host of GB News’ current affairs programme Tonight, told The Mail on Sunday that the danger became so urgent Metropolitan Police officers instructed him to leave his home in the middle of the night.
According to Christys, he and his wife, fellow GB News presenter Emily Carver, who was heavily pregnant at the time, were warned that intelligence suggested their lives could be in jeopardy because of his reporting on people-smuggling networks around Calais. The couple were told to gather their belongings and stay out of sight with friends.
Speaking publicly about the ordeal for the first time, Christys said he feels furious and worn down by what he views as Britain’s failure to confront organised smuggling gangs, which he claims continue to operate openly.
He also said he feared his family had been left vulnerable after the Metropolitan Police allegedly removed their panic alarm without notifying them. In another alarming incident, Christys claimed a trafficker he had encountered in Calais later found him on a London street. A year after the threat emerged, he and Carver are still protected by 24-hour security.
Christys said the issue had become deeply personal, arguing that the public needed to understand the nature of the criminal networks behind Channel crossings. He said the alleged threat involved traffickers who, in his words, wanted to kill him at home while his wife was eight months pregnant.
He said the fear extended beyond his own safety, questioning whether his wife and child could have been targeted as a way to reach him. Christys also criticised the system that, he argued, allows those involved in illegal migration and people-smuggling operations to profit while British taxpayers shoulder the cost.
He added that the alleged plot showed how confident the gangs had become, saying they appeared to believe they could murder a television journalist inside his own home and escape justice.
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.’
