Des was, on the surface, the sort of archetypal squatter Daily Mail readers have nightmares about. He gave us plenty of problems too. We strung a wire from our meter to provide his house with electricity. We'd shiver on what we could afford, and he'd run electric fires day and night and argue that the bill was our problem. He'd fill up his house with drug-dealer friends and every few months the police would bust them all. Des was deeply dodgy, and usually off his head one way or another.
And then just when you'd decided he was a hopeless case, he'd offer to do something like fixing your rotten, leaking roof. How many Daily Mail readers would do the same?