Later life[edit]

Humphreys left the UK and set up a greyhound-breeding business in Knocklong, a small village
in County Limerick. The business was a front for its real purpose of an
illegal amphetamine factory. He fled the country in 1982, just before a raid by the Gardaí, and
travelled to the US where he invested in a drugs-smuggling operation, but was cheated of his
investment.[5]
After living in Mexico and the US Humphreys and his wife returned to the UK in 1988 and
opened a restaurant in Blackheath, south east London. Following its liquidation, the couple set
up at least three brothels in Marylebone and Marble Arch; police suspected the couple were
operating a fourth brothel, but could not prove it.[117][118] Although prostitution is legal in the
UK,[119] living off immoral earnings is an offence.[120][v] After a surveillance operation, the couple
were arrested in November 1993.[15] The Humphreys, who were living in West Hampstead,
pleaded guilty to the charges; Humphreys described himself as a greyhound bloodstock
agent.[118] As well as taking a percentage of the women's earnings, the couple charged the
prostitutes £30 a day expenses and between £100 and £180 a day rent. Additional charges were
also levied, including £100 a week for printing advertising cards, and £50 a day to the man who
posted the cards in local phone boxes.[117] The rent and additional charges were so high that the
women worked twelve hours a day, seven days a week.[114] The judge, Mr Justice Fingret, said
that the brothels had been "a well organised and highly profitable organisation, netting the two of
you well in excess of £100,000 profit in a 20-month period".[118] The prosecution estimated the
couple's takings to be £100,000–£300,000.[122] Humphreys was sentenced to twelve
months;[117] Rusty was gaoled for eight months in Holloway Prison.[15] Humphreys died in
September 2003.[123]
In the 1996 BBC television series Our Friends in the North the character Benny Barrett, played
by Malcolm McDowell, was based on Humphreys.[124] In 1999 Humphreys discussed the
possibility of their life story being made into a film with Film4 Productions, who gave the film the
provisional title Rusty; as at 2020 the film remains unmade.[125]