A man who ran London’s biggest brothel and was planning a murder told the BBC in April how his life was turned around by Jesus Christ.
John Lawson described his former self as a ‘horrible animal’, but an encounter with God transformed him and he now goes into prisons to tell others the gospel.
Speaking to BBC Radio Scotland, Lawson said he had a difficult childhood, became a bouncer and moved to London where he ran the biggest brothel in the capital. He felt like he had ‘made it in life’ – owning a big house and a luxury car. Lawson then got involved in international ‘debt collection’ – kidnapping people who owed money. He now describes his old self as someone who was ‘cold-hearted’ enough to plan a murder.
Instead, police caught Lawson and he was sent to prison. It was there that he was befriended by a Nigerian. Lawson said he went along to listen to a prison Bible study led by a preacher when he heard there was coffee, cake and biscuits on offer. He planned to take the food when the others were ‘in their holy huddles, with their eyes closed’. But when he saw the other prisoners were happy, and singing praise to God, he started crying.
‘He will surely live’
The next morning his Nigerian friend gave him a Bible, where he read in Ezekiel, ‘if a wicked man turns away from ... sins ... and keeps all my decrees ..., he will surely live; he will not die’. Lawson knew he was a wicked man. He went back to the preacher, who told him the good news of Jesus Christ.
Following his release from jail, he became involved with an outreach and training ministry, which sees him going into prisons around the world.
Asked by BBC presenter Louise White if this work was his redemption, Lawson said: ‘No. Everything was done for me on that cross. Christ took everything. There is no need for me to do anything else. I am so thankful that God rescued me. I will preach the gospel ’til the day I die, and just you try stop me.’
