But it made all its leg cuffs and gang chains in a 10000sq-ft plant in Bedford Park Illinois

But it made all its leg cuffs and gang chains in a 10,000sq-ft plant in Bedford Park, Illinois. He said the leg-irons The Independent bought "must have been old stock from the early 1980s". The US needed such equipment because its criminals were harder to restrain, he added "These guys are big animals. "We have agreed with them that they can use our name in marketing handcuffs." Chuck Thompson said his firm bought handcuffs including the "Big Brutus" - which has the same dimensions as a leg-cuff - from Hiatt and Company. "The company in the US is a customer of ours for handcuffs," he added.

Hiatt Thompson's only link with Hiatt and Co was as a purchaser of its equipment, he said. Hiatt and Co received no payment for the use of its name and logo in advertising of products such as leg irons by Hiatt Thompson. In 1986 it formed a distribution partnership in the US with a businessman, Chuck Thompson, forming a new and separate firm, Hiatt Thompson. Hiatt Thompson's website boasts that the firm has been "Simply the Best Since 1780" and bears a company history written by a former director of Hiatt and Co, Terry Fellows. It also uses the logo of the UK company on advertisements for leg irons. Geoffrey Cross, the chairman of Hiatt and Co, denied his firm exported leg irons or components for them, but said it did make extra-large handcuffs which were exported with a licence. In 1995 Patrick Foster, a British businessman imprisoned in Saudi Arabia for drinking, told a newspaper he was held in Hiatt leg irons.

He saw one man taken away in them to be beheaded, and another hung upside down by them while he was beaten on the feet. Hiatt is a British company set up in 1780, when it provided leg- irons, gang-chains and "nigger collars" to the slave trade, says an official history. In a glass case beneath a gallery of stuffed wild turkeys, are displayed rows of handcuffs, leg-irons and belly- chains with "Big Brutus" handcuffs for thicker wrists. If there were any quality problems, the Ray's staff said, the cuffs were covered by a warranty from Hiatt and Co in the UK. Leg-irons and gang-chains are legal in the United States, used in some prisons. The goods required export licences before Labour came to power and the rules on their sale and manufacture have not changed. Thirty miles west of Manhattan, past a polluted wasteland of twisted metal, Ray's sits among the strip malls on Highway 22, between a Nissan dealership and a Blockbuster video store. They could supply a variety of Hiatt goods, all recent stock, they said. The Independent bought a pair of leg irons with "Made in England" on the cuff and with Hiatts' address in Birmingham on the box. Two years ago the Foreign Secretary, Robin Cook, announced a ban on such devices. At Ray's Sport Shop in New Jersey, half a dozen customers were stocking up on law enforcement and hunting equipment last Thursday. The staff were helpful, friendly and open.

At Ray's Sport Shop in New Jersey, half a dozen customers were stocking up on law enforcement and hunting equipment last Thursday. Cannabis was far below alcohol or tobacco on both measures. The programme shows that when the drugs war began in the 1960s, ignorance was as rife among the police as the general public. One police officer explains how, when he first caught someone in possession of cannabis, he thought he had merely discovered an Oxo cube. High profile examples were made of icons like The Beatles and The Rolling Stones when they were caught in possession of soft drugs. Today, police recognise that arresting pop stars is no effective deterrent to the average user, especially in a culture where magazines run articles about their readers' favourite drugs, the programme finds. Panorama is screened by BBC1 tonight at 10pm.. A tough line was also taken with Ecstasy, with nine out of 10 police saying possession of 20 pills was a "serious" offence. Police officers rated cannabis below coffee on an addiction scale and only slightly higher on a potential harm scale. At present the whole drugs supply business, this whole international industry, is controlled by criminals. "If we look at the social damage caused by the present regime - and I mean all the violence and abuse that is carried on through the fact that it's a criminal business - if we can get rid of that, then the fact that we are supplying the drug through more highly regulated mechanisms locally will probably be a good thing." The programme features the results of a three-year study tracking the changes in police attitudes towards illicit drugs. The study, which looked at the reactions of 95 officers in three different forces to various hypothetical cases involving cannabis, heroin and Ecstasy, reveals police are more tolerant of drugs than they were ten years ago. More than two-thirds of those surveyed said they would probably not prosecute a man for having four cannabis plants, because it was a "run of the mill" case and the suspect was likely to be released with a caution. However, more than two-thirds said possession of a small amount of heroin was a "serious" drugs case and they would prosecute. A former chief constable tonight reveals that he has become a leading member of a group campaigning for the legalisation of all drugs. Francis Wilkinson, who retired as Gwent's top policeman earlier this year and has recently spoken out against the Government's prohibition policy on drugs, tells BBC1's Panorama that he has become a patron of campaign group Transform. The controversial documentary also reveals results of research showing widespread police tolerance of cannabis, which officers of all ranks say they regard as less harmful and addictive than alcohol or tobacco. Mr Wilkinson joins a former head of Scotland Yard's Drug Squad, Edward Ellison - already a patron of Transform - to call for drug prohibition to be replaced with an effective system of regulation and control. Speaking to reporter Peter Marshall, he says: "The British crime survey shows that over the last couple of years cocaine consumption has doubled. "It will double again in a couple of years unless we do something to manage the supply in a more effective way. "What I want do is to take the criminal out of the market. A former chief constable tonight reveals that he has become a leading member of a group campaigning for the legalisation of all drugs.

You cannot have a government while illegal weapons and illegal organisations are intertwined in the process." Mr Maginnis challenged the British, Irish and American governments and the SDLP to underwrite the disarmament process. "If two governments, the US president and the SDLP believe the IRA should decommission, let them spell out with clarity and certainty how they would react if they are betrayed by what Sinn Fein says," he said. Should he decide to move ahead, Mr Trimble faces an uphill struggle to get the deal accepted, with strong opposition from influential party members, including his deputy, John Taylor. Mr Taylor said the deal was skewed in favour of republicans and unionists must get a better offer to attract them into an inclusive executive. Ulster Secretary Peter Mandelson was telling unionists to take a leap in the dark, Mr Taylor said. The Strangford MP said it was also unfair that unionists as well as republicans would suffer if the executive was rescinded in the event of the IRA not getting rid of its arsenal.. "But I believe there is sufficient support within each of our constituencies to ensure that this will work and we will put behind us forever any prospect of a return to violence." SDLP senior negotiator Mark Durkan said the deal offered "an opportunity for everyone" and the chance of "comprehensive implementation" of the Good Friday Agreement. Senator Mitchell was returning to Stormont this morning for what he hopes will be the final sessions of 10 weeks of tough negotiations in his review of the Belfast peace accord. Unionists are considering a deal which includes IRA and Sinn Fein statements backing the peace process and disavowing all violence, and the nomination of a shadow cabinet in early December. It is anticipated that the agreement will also mean a start to a hand-over of IRA weapons by late January - but unionists say this is not explicit enough. Mr Maginnis said: "We are going to have to get a degree of certainty and clarity in respect of what is already proposed. "Unless we can have that, to move forward towards something that would break down in a matter of weeks would be foolhardy. It can provide for all of us, whether we are Republican or Unionist the opportunity, to pursue our political ambitions." Mr McLaughlin avoided saying whether Sinn Fein would be able to give David Trimble, the UUP's leader, further clarification on decommissioning. He insisted that the process had to move forward so that further problems could be dealt with gradually, saying: "We will not unpick, we will not breakdown the hostilities that have existed for nearly three centuries here in a matter of weeks - it will take collaboration between us for some considerable time." He believed Mr Trimble had enough within the deal to take the process forward. "I believe that whilst there will be those who oppose him he must confront those, as we must oppose those within Republicanism who oppose what we are attempting to do. Hopefully the Unionist Party will endorse the position that has been adopted by their negotiators we are seeking the same endorsement from ours." "We believe that this process can in fact end all vestiges of political violence in our society. Ulster Unionists and Sinn Fein were still at odds over paramilitary arms as former United States Senator George Mitchell tried to close the deal on Northern Ireland's future. As the discussions reopened after the weekend break Prime Minister Tony Blair expressed optimism that the peace process would move forward. The current stage in the Mitchell Review gave a "one-off opportunity" to gain peace and mutual respect among the Province's communities, he told the BBC Radio 4 Today programme. "We have not failed at all yet and I hope we never do so - let us hope that in the next few days that the leadership of people like David Trimble, who have shown incredible courage, will continue to exercise that leadership," he said. Mr Blair, who was speaking from South Africa, where he has been attending the Commonwealth Heads of State conference, said: "I have learned enough and I think everyone else has to know that it is not sensible to talk of breakthroughs and the rest of it until it really happens - but let us hope that it will happen. "I am sure that the vast majority of people in Northern Ireland want it to happen, and the one thing I am convinced of - and I think Senator Mitchell has come to the same conclusion - is that the key parties in this process do want it to work." Ulster Unionist Party security spokesman Ken Maginnis said he needed "clarity and certainty" on decommissioning before his colleagues could enter a power-sharing government with republicans. But Sinn Fein chairman Mitchel McLaughlin said he believed both parties could sell the agreement on the table to their respective constituencies. The parties had reached a point where decisions on setting up the political institutions could be made, he told the Today programme. "We are awaiting a decision of the Unionist Party and we hope it will be a positive decision this morning," he said. "There is a very complex package negotiated out between us.