Sierra Leone is one of the poorest countries in the world but it’s also one of the most beautiful places I’ve ever been to. I travelled to West Africa with model Tali Lennox and John McKie from Christian Aid to see the fantastic work that Christian Aid are doing to fight poverty. We drove across the beautiful countryside towards the town of Gbap in the Bonthe district where we stayed with the community chief for two nights and documented Christian Aid‘s agricultural work, before taking a boat to the small fishing village of Mo -Albert where we filmed and photographed Christian Aid‘s fishing projects. The civil war in Sierra Leone lasted for 11 years between 1991 and 2002 and evidence of the war is everywhere. Bullet holes can be seen in buildings,  there are many amputees and we passed a mass grave where over 2000 people were buried.  I hope that Sierra Leone can carry on rebuilding and become the tourism hot spot that is was in the 1980′s.

Please take a look at the videos I shot below and click on this link to donate to Christian Aid

In my time as a press photographer I have stood outside more courts than I can remember to cover stories ranging from the Josef Fritzl case in Austria to the Louise Woodward trial in my home town of Chester. When someone is in custody it is becoming extremely rare to be able to get a shot of the person. I have just had a really interesting few days in Mombasa, Kenya covering the case of the British terror suspect Jermaine Grant where for the first time ever I was able to take photographs of the suspect in the dock, inside the court room. Not only that but as the prison bus pulls up outside the law courts in the mornings the prison officers parades the suspect in handcuffs to make sure you can get a great picture. I ended up taking so many pictures that I had around 500 of them to go through at the end of each day! I only wish that it could be that easy the next time I’m stood outside London’s High court!

Kuwait has never been on my list of places to visit but this was an easy job that turned out to be great fun. Sun reporter Gary O’Shea and I met up with millionaire Sheik Jassim Al Wathiqi and his family in Kuwait City and enjoyed his great hospitality before photographing him, his son Manof and daughter Mayar in their brand new £380,000 Ferrari 458 Spider super car. The story was about three year old Manof who demanded his father bought him the car after spotting it in a magazine. Manof is driven around in it for ten minutes every night before bedtime as the vibrations from the exhaust send him to sleep. The first time I watched from another vehicle as Manof fell asleep just minutes after been driven from the family home, it worked a treat. However, the last thing I felt like doing as a passenger in this awesome machine was falling asleep! (see video below!) It was terrifyingly fast at 0-60 in 3.5 seconds but a fantastic experience that puts my Audi A3 to shame!

This year has been the craziest year of my life, I’ve witnessed two revolutions, two major earthquakes, riots in London and pretty much every other major news story!

From photographing Colonel Gaddafi’s body in Libya to bumping in to Kate Middleton in a supermarket in Wales, these are my pictures of the year.

Egyptian Revolution: February

I began 2011 covering the revolution in Egypt. I arrived a few days after the uprisings began and didn’t expect to see as much as I did. Thousands of people filled Tahrir Square in Cairo in what appeared to be a peaceful protest but large groups of pro Mubarak supporters began to protest in another corner of the square and when the two sides met it was like a medieval war with both sides throwing rocks at each other. For the next three days I watched as men went through the streets fighting on camels and saw a man being stabbed to death right in front of me. I watched through the night from my hotel balcony as they were setting fire to everything and wondered if my hotel would be next! The scariest moment for me though was being stopped at road blocks at gun point and standing underneath two fighter jets as they came low over the crowds – I later found out that the pilots were under orders to fire at the protesters. Thank god they didn’t!

Japan Tsunami: March

I watched the amazing footage on the news as the Tsunami hit North-East Japan and two days later I was seeing the devastation for myself. one thing that TV can’t show you is how vast the damage was. I went out there with the British Search and Rescue teams and we would drive for hundreds of miles and the coast line was destroyed. The team I was with found no survivors, the weather was freezing and we kept finding dead bodies. On day one we discovered the body of a young man on an industrial estate, his hands in the air like he’d been trying to grab hold of something as the wave swept him away. The lady pictured above is sat on the foundations of her home and the picture below shows the body of a man upside down in his car, still holding his car key and looks as though he had tried to out-drive the wave.

Kate Middleton shopping at Waitrose: May

While trying to get a photograph of Prince William arriving back at work one week after his royal wedding, I dropped by Waitrose supermarket in Anglesey on my way back to London and spotted a royal protection vehicle. As I quickly put my camera together Kate walked out of the front,  which I missed completely but thankfully she went to return her trolley where I got a nice set of pictures of the future Queen just days after her wedding!

London Riots: August

I wasn’t planning on photographing any of the London riots but when I could see hooded youths with weapons right below my flat I had to go and  photograph it. I took these pictures in Clapham Junction and my flat mate Simon Dawson and I watched as hundreds of thugs smashed every shop and stole as much as they could before the police arrived half an hour later. Half the skill was not being seen taking these pictures as anyone caught with a camera was getting badly beaten.

Malawi: September

I had an amazing week in Malawi photographing the great work Christian Aid do to help fight the stigma surrounding HIV. The sun was going down and I saw these three kids taking water back to their homes. Malawi is the friendliest place I’ve ever been to and I can’t wait to go back.

Libya Revolution: September – October

I traveled to Libya three times between September and October. The first time as the rebels took Tripoli where I got to have a look around Colonel Gaddafi’s compound Bab al aziz which was an incredible insight to Gaddafi’s dictatorship. Despite the constant threat of snipers and the continuous sound of gun and Mortar fire I feel privileged to have witnessed the party on Martyr Square that night as thousands celebrated. The funniest moment for me was while the reporter and I were on the phone to our office in London telling them it was safe then two fighter jets flew over us and dropped a bomb on a Gaddafi target right in front of us – perhaps not as safe as we thought!

The picture above is the body of Colonel Gaddafi in a supermarket fridge with the bodies of his son Mutassim and his ex-defence minister Abu Bakr Younis in Misrata. Never in a million years did I ever expect to be standing next to Colonel Gaddafi’s corpse and it only happened because our driver stopped to ask someone for directions to a garage to get a new tyre for the car – by chance the man we asked told us how he had been guarding Gaddafi’s body the night before and within minutes we were in the fridge with him!

Sun reporter Oliver Harvey and I found these bodies (all 66 of them) at a hotel in Sirte. They had been shot in the head and most had been cuffed by Gaddafi loyalists and used as human shields. I felt sick as I took these pictures, truly the most shocking thing I’ve ever seen. The picture below shows a charred body in the bombed out convoy of cars that the colonel was traveling in before he ran to a nearby drain and was killed.

Earthquake Eastern Turkey: November

I spent a few days in Ercis in Eastern Turkey following the 7.2 magnitude earthquake. It was freezing cold and situation was awful with hundreds dead, hundreds missing and thousands homeless. The man in the picture above could only watch as rescuers searched for his children in the rubble. Each night reporter Oliver Harvey and I traveled around 100km to the Bayram hotel in Van where cracks could visibly be seen on the walls. One week after we left the hotel it collapsed in an aftershock killing 13 people.

What can next year possibly have in store for me?!

The body of col Gaddafi with his son Muatassim and Libya's ex-defence minister Abu Bakr Younis in Misrata.

I watched on TV at home in London as news came through of Col Gaddafi’s capture and death, by the following afternoon I was sat inside Gaddafi’s final hiding place in a drain in Sirte! Surrounded by bodies and with rebels celebrating with gunfire it was exactly how it must have been the day before. Just yards away remained a convoy of bombed out cars that the colonel had ran away from and within those cars were dozens of charred bodies.
The journey to Sirte had been horrendous and involved a flight from Heathrow via Istanbul then on to Benghazi where immigration insisted on keeping our passports because we didn’t have the correct visa. We quickly managed to get a good driver and a fixer and drove for nine hours across the desert to Sirte where I quickly photographed Sun reporter Oliver Harvey in the drain using the last five minutes of day light and then sent it via sat phone in pitch darkness surrounded by rotting bodies and that continuous sound of gun fire. After spending the evening in a fly infested compound with rebels eating just crisps and biscuits we drove back to the drain where locals were keen to show us a hotel where Gaddafi’s men had been staying. Completely unexpected I found myself surrounded by 66 rotting bodies. According to the rebels the men had been prisoners because they lived in the Gaddafi stronghold of Sirte but supported the revolution. The men were freed but only to be used as human shields when the rebels had approached the area. The smell made me feel sick and flies were all over the mouths and eyes of the bodies and they were all over me. As I took photographs of the massacre I had to step over bodies, being extra careful not to stand on anyone. They were everywhere and most had gunshots to the head and were cuffed at the hands and legs. I was trying not to look at the faces but I couldn’t help it, I’ve seen many bodies before and it doesn’t affect me too much but I struggled to get this site out of my head.

Badly shaken from the morning experiences we drove another 200km to Misrata where our plan was to find Gaddafi’s golden gun, which was taken, by one of the rebels after Gaddafi left it in the drainpipe. This was proving difficult and with know where to go the driver insisted on getting new tyres on his car. In what turned out to be the best bit of luck ever the man whom we had stopped to ask for directions to a garage said he had just been guarding Gaddafi’s body and gave us directions to it! Within minutes we were at the location and picked up a local soldier at the gate who proudly walked us in to a supermarket fridge containing the bodies of Col Gaddafi and his son Muatassim and his ex-defence minister Abu Bakr Younis.
I was in complete shock and shaking nervously and quickly posed Oliver Harvey next to his body and took as many pictures as possible before a guard told us to leave, I then went back in a second time and shot some video. I still can’t believe we actually managed to get within touching distance of one of history’s most savage tyrants. Pinching ourselves and laughing nervously we knew we had a great picture for Mondays Sun!
Our luck continued as the soldier that had so proudly shown us Col Gaddafi went on to show us where his belongings were at a near by barracks and then the young boy who took Gaddafi’s golden gun showed up waving the gun around with pride. Job done!

As we drove back to Benghazi the atmosphere was amazing as all Libyans were celebrating and I would have enjoyed it even more if Libya weren’t a dry country, I needed a beer!

Getting our passports back at the airport was proving more difficult than finding Gaddafi and with just seconds to spare before our plane took off we were given them back!

Gaddafi's belongings that he had with him when he was killed

Nabil Ali Darwach who found col Gaddafi's golden gun in the drain pipe where he hid in Sirte

Libyan rebels at the drain that Col Gaddafi was captured and killed from in Sirte

66 dead bodies at a hotel in Sirte. The men were tied up and used as a human shield for Gaddafi's men

One of the 66 bodies with his arms cuffed behind his back

Libyan rebels at Col Gaddafi's last hiding place

Me with the Golden Gun!

I couldn’t resist having my picture taken with his golden gun and I got one with his boot as well! I keep thinking I should have had my picture taken with the Colonel himself, but would that have been wrong?

Spending the best part of nine hours on a Sunday stood on a 6 foot ladder is not my idea of a good time but it was all worth it as Paul McCartney and his new wife Nancy happily posed for photographs before and after yesterday’s wedding. Here are my pictures of the happy couple, and Ringo!

I had an amazing week in Malawi with Christian Aid. A team of us including singer Beverley Knight went out there to document how Christian Aid are helping to fight the stigma surrounding HIV. Malawi goes straight to the top of my favourite African countries list as the people are the the friendliest I’ve ever met. I can’t wait to return!

Singer Beverley Knight sings with children at Tune for Life in Lilongwe, Malawi

Rebels celebrate after taking Gaddafi's Compound

After covering the uprising in Egypt earlier this year I told myself I wouldn’t do anything like that again but at 1am on Monday morning I was woken up by a call from the Sun picture desk asking me if I would like to go to Libya. Without really thinking about it I said yes and went to the office to pick up a flak Jacket, helmet and a sat phone and set off via France and Tunisia just a few hours later. Due to flight delays in France, Sun Defence Editor Virginia Wheeler and I didn’t arrive in Djerba until midnight. From there we travelled by taxi five hours through the mountains and I felt sick with worry with the little knowledge I had on what to expect when we hit Libya.  Before I left London my family and girlfriend were devastated that I had decided to go and this played on my mind the whole journey.  Surprisingly we walked across the border with ease, stamping our passports along the way but the difficulty was getting a car to Tripoli. I found myself standing in Libya with my luggage by my feet thinking what have I done.

A local Libyan man who we had earlier met on our flight came to our help and found us two rebels with a car who were on there way to Tripoli to fight. This scared me but soon became apparent they were great people just helping to fight for their country.

On our five-hour journey to the capital there was barely a building we passed that wasn’t covered in bullet holes. Mobile phone coverage was non-existent and streets and homes were deserted with disused tanks lining the road. Rebel controlled road blocks became a common site with groups of heavily armed young men asking us for ID and searching our vehicle. Once they realised we were media they would always want me to photograph them posing with their weapons.

We later arrived in Tripoli to the sound of gunfire and the atmosphere was tense. I was bricking it!

Our new rebel friends looked after us and put us up in there home with armed guards. I watched from our compound as fighter jets bombed Gaddafi’s compound. Smoke filled the skies and the realisation of where I was hit me hard.

Our task was to get to Green Square in the centre of Tripoli, which had been taken over by the rebels and renamed Martyr’s Square.  We arrived there and were greeted by the deafening sound of gunfire. I kept my head down and hoped it was all friendly fire but we were continuously being warned about Gaddafi’s snipers and there were rumours of people being assassinated in the street by men with silencers.

That night I barely slept with the sound of loud explosions outside our central Tripoli compound with anti aircraft fire beautifully lighting up the skies.

During the night the rebels had taken Gaddafi’s Tripoli Compound known as Bab al-Aziziya so as soon as we able to get a driver we went to see it. As we drove in it appeared like they had it under control. I took photographs of his funfair and wandered around his home, even stopping to pick up some souvenirs! Suddenly the terrifying sound of Mortar could be heard hitting the area we were in and I ran as fast as I could towards our car. As I got in the car I could see Gaddafi’s fighters spraying bullets towards the rebels and it was like they were on one final death mission. My adrenaline kicked in and I wanted to stay and photograph it but thankfully our fixer forced me in the back of the car and we headed for safety.

The office decided the situation was too dangerous and wanted us to leave Libya immediately and I couldn’t have agreed more.  Logistically this job was a nightmare. It’s easier for TV who are well equipped with drivers, security and food but without the help of some very kind locals we would have been in big trouble. There were no hotels, very little electricity and a shortage of food and water.

In one final obstacle on our drive home our driver Mohammed crashed in to a roadblock at 120km an hour. My seatbelt saved me but the driver lost his teeth and Virginia had some nasty bruises. Amazingly the car still worked and got us over the border where I checked in to a 5 star hotel for a well-deserved beer (or ten!)

The 20 minutes inside Gaddafi’s compound was an experience I will never forget and made this trip well worth doing. I’m now relaxing on a much needed month long holiday!

A young boy collects Gaddafi's briefcase from his compound

Celebrations on Martyr's Square

Rebels celebrate after taking Gaddafi's Compound

Gaddafi's Rocket Collection in the reception of his compound

Rebels proudly show off Hannibal Gaddafi's Passport

Last week I had a very fun week out in Malia on the island of Crete in Greece. The new Inbetweeners movie is out this week so Sun features writer Nick Francis and I had three wild nights in the party town to document the night life ahead of the movie release. I didn’t have to try hard to get good pictures, everywhere I looked there was something to photograph. The most difficult thing was editing down from around one hundred great images to a final twenty! We met one girl who had to wear a neck brace after shagging on a boat and other women that were more than happy to show off their body parts! I have been to loads of these ‘lads holiday’ places now and this is by far the most fun. Anything goes! We stayed in the Aegean Sky Hotel and the owner Panos and family were the nicest, most welcoming people I have ever met at a hotel. So, if you’re planning a party holiday to Malia stay there!

Well done to all those people who helped clean up Clapham Junction yesterday. Hundreds of Londoners turned out to clean up the mess left by looters and criminals during Monday nights violence.

Hayley Miller from Clapham proudly wore a T-shirt saying Looters are Scum and I couldn’t agree more!