Some things that confused me... (SPOILERS)

Q1 - I get the impression that it's because Geordie stood up to the other gang and didnt run off.

Q2 - Don't think Geordie had shouted to anyone, granted he may have been a bit loud (one of the coppers mentions geordies name, during a taped interview but this may be because he was the one taking the bribe money to the police and was therefore known to a few of them). It's made clear at some point though that the police were 'in' on geordies arrest. Barrat knew he would have to either give himself or one of his guys over to the police when the Met changed hands so as to quieten them. Think overall, Barrat knew geordie had gone behind his back with Julia and was just biding his time as to when to punish him for it.
'No One Here Gets Out Alive'

1974 episode:

Geordie returns to his old flat, mirroring his return to it from the seaside the previous episode. It has been redecorated, and tidied, and someone has put fresh flowers in it for his arrival. He tentatively checks the drawers and wardrobe, but this time there are only clothes - possibly new clothes bought for him. He has a bath, then dresses in a velvet suit from the wardrobe, and visits Benny. They embrace like good friends, then Geordie pulls a pistol from him waistband and shoots Benny. We then realise this is a fantasy, and see Geordie lying on his prison bed, daydreaming. He is about to be released.

When he does actually return to his old flat, his key does not work. The new tenant is one of Benny's showgirls, Lucille, who remembers Geordie fondly, and invites him to stay until he sorts himself out. We soon realise Geordie is a broken man, and one wracked with bitterness. He smashes a framed photograph of Benny with Lucille and two other women, then smashes a bottle and proceeds to stab the picture of Benny with it.

At this time the new Metropolitan Police Commissioner, Michael Jellicoe, has been vigorously pursuing an aggressive policy against the Soho porn barons, and Benny has decamped to Spain, which does not at this time have an extradition treaty with Britain. Chapple visits him to let him know that "it's over". Back in Britain, Chapple retires, knowing that Jellicoe is on his tail. With his protector out of the force, Salway realises he is vulnerable.

We see Geordie leaving a cheap hotel. He scours the streets of Soho for Benny, whom he has learned has come back to Britain. However, the Jellicoe police are also looking for Benny, and arrest him just before Geordie is able to to shoot him. Geordie breaks down.

With Benny in custody and his copious tape recordings and photographs of his dealings with the WEC/Chapple corruption ring at their disposal, Jellicoe's anti-corruption investigators are able to make cases against several crooked cops. Salway and Chapple are arrested, as well as Conrad and five others.

The episode ends with Geordie - who looks dazed, wide-eyed, and seems confused - gatecrashing Eddie Wells' election victory party, and reuniting with Nicky, Mary and Tosker for the first time since 1964.

1979 episode:

Geordie is living in the Willow Lane flats back in Newcastle, and is involved with drug dealers. Nicky is his next door neighbour. He goes out to discos with Tosker.

Concerned by Geordie's state, Nicky talks with him about his time in London. Nicky reads to him from a new book about the Soho corruption scandal which mentions him: "Johnson was now close to lifting the lid on the Soho rackets. But when Cockburn announced his intention to question George Peacock it literally dealt a death blow to the whole inquiry. Within 24 hours he had replaced as inquiry leader by none other than John Salway, head of the Dirty Squad... "It also dealt a severe blow to George Peacock, a notoriously heavy drinker who had become to talkative for his own good." Geordie acknowledges this, saying "Well, yeah, that was about it. They knew I'd probably talk - I didn't really give a *beep* by then - so they stitched us up to get us out the way." Nicky thinks that it was strange that they fitted him up after the investigation had finished rather than earlier; Geordie tells him it was because he had had the affair with Jules. Geordie toasts to Jules - "wherever you are" - and makes to leave Nicky, but Nicky, realising how much Geordie feels for this woman, calls him back and reads out a postscript from the book, which explains how Jules (who had been a major witness in the trials of the corrupt cops and against Benny himself) had died after a fall from a balcony. The coroner recorded an open verdict. Geordie seems broken, and stays with Nicky to talk and drink. He gives his 'blizzard' speech.

Later Geordie travels to London to meet with Benny, who has been released from prison. He seems determined to find out whether Benny had anything to do with Jules' death. Unlike 1974, this time Geordie does not seem intent on killing Benny - we know his gun is back in Newcastle, because Anthony (Mary and Tosker's son) has discovered it in Geordie's flat. He simply seems to want to know the truth. Benny insists "nobody killed her". Geordie leaves.

===

So, in summary (sorry, I went on a bit there!)...

It seems possible that either Benny, or Salway, or one of either's underlings, were the actual agent who placed the compromising material in Geordie's flat. The flat is, after all, owned by Benny, and Salway's Dirty Squad does operate across Soho, and we do know that the corrupt cops have been involved with all manner of active crime (such as burglary) as well as passive crime (such as accepting bribes).

Salway has a search warrant ready knowing that the porn has been stashed there without Geordie's knowledge. Salway also knows when Geordie will be coming back (Benny told Geordie when to come back, and also, we may assume, he relayed this to Salway, whom he has met in Soho sometime between speaking with Geordie on the phone the previous night and Geordie arriving back in London).

This set-up was Benny's request - "the little favour"; and I see no reason not to agree with Geordie's 1979 assertion that, four year gap (between Benny confronting Geordie over Jules and Geordie being arrested) or not, this was (in part) Benny's revenge for the affair. However, I think that given Benny's proven misogyny, it was more to do with tying up the loose ends following a narrow escape at the hands of Roy Johnson.

Setting up Geordie in the four years before the 'Times' report precipitated the Cockburn investigation and then the Johnson report would have made no sense; Geordie was a trusted lieutenant of Benny, and his bagman paying off the WEC/Chapple gang.

No, it is the very fact that Geordie essentially caused the whole mess which leads Benny to stitch him up. Geordie was drinking too much and not being discreet enough. He had let slip to another - possibly freelance - corrupt cop, DS Croxley, enough details of the WEC/Chapple-Barratt deal that Croxley was able to flesh out his pitch to Fisch. At this point, clearly the Barratt/Chapple conspiracy could not afford to let Geordie fall into the hands of clean cops, hence his disappearing act. But nine months later, once Johnson's report had been neutralised by Bramire essentially blackmailing Seabrook with Conrad's Donohue/Edwards line of inquiry, then the chapter was closed. Enough minnows had been caught that the big fish felt safe. Johnson had been packed off back to the provinces, Cockburn had been reassigned, Conrad had been shut down. The corrupt cops at WEC were now in a position to be able to reaffirm their relationship with Benny Barratt, knowing that the investigation they had initially obstructed and ultimately themselves run, had drawn only dead ends as regards their own corruption. And hence whilst during the Johnson months keeping Geordie out of the picture was a priority, now Johnson was off, putting Geordie very definitely in the frame - for causing all the problems in the first place - was the new priority.

Of course, it still boils down to Jules this way too - Geordie's descent into drinking, his cynicism, his loose talk: all came only after Benny set him up (in a smaller, but no less cruel way) in 1970. Note than in both 1970 and 1974 that Benny chooses John Salway as Geordie's persecuter-in-chief.

Anyhow, this is my take on it, apologies for length.