Notorious Nottingham crime boss Colin Gunn, who is serving a life sentence for orchestrating the murders of an innocent couple, is bringing a legal challenge over whether he poses a high risk of escape from prison. Gunn was jailed for at least 35 years in 2006 for conspiracy to murder John and Joan Stirland, who were shot in Trusthorpe, Lincolnshire, to gain "revenge" on their son.
He is taking legal action against the Ministry of Justice (MoJ), claiming a decision in February 2023 to not downgrade his escape risk classification was unfair and unlawful. Gunn, currently in high-security HMP Long Lartin in Evesham, Worcestershire, alleges the decision means he experiences a "significantly more intrusive and restrictive regime in the prison".
He also claims it prevents him moving to a lower security category and reduces his prospect of release on licence at the end of his minimum term in 2040. The MoJ rejects his case, arguing that its decision was "entirely rational".
A documentary called Murder By The Sea on CBS Reality shared the shocking story of the seaside murders that put Colin Gunn behind bars and helped stop Nottingham being labelled as 'gun city'. The show detailed how Colin Gunn planned the murders of Joan and John Stirland in Trusthorpe, Lincolnshire, which saw him sentenced to 35 years in prison for conspiracy to murder.
We've taken a look at the key figures in the story of one of Nottingham's most notorious crime bosses.
David Gunn
One person we can't ignore is Colin Gunn's brother, David. During David Gunn's trial in 2006, where he confessed to plotting to supply amphetamine, his lawyer claimed there was a clear "distinction in character" between Colin and David.
He also mentioned that because of David's family ties with his brother Colin, he had become quite infamous himself. Even so, the elder Gunn brother, David, had already made a name for himself as an infamous figure.
David and Colin Gunn, who grew up in Eastwood before moving to Bestwood, became known for their tough presence. David went to Henry Whipple Junior School, where he met his future wife, and then to Padstow Comprehensive School.
The brothers loved playing Sunday league football for the Scots Grey pub in Bulwell and were known to be quite intimidating even back then. A police officer said: "I remember one match down at the Bulwell Hall Farm pitches around 15 years ago. They arranged to put a pig's head in the visiting team's dressing room. The opposition turned up, and let's just say they weren't up for the match from that point."
They started getting into trouble on the Bestwood Estate, mainly by scaring shop owners and people running pubs and clubs to get money from them. A former detective said: "Their modus operandi was to visit a business and ask to see the gaffer. Colin would point out to the boss that his security was not very good and for a hundred quid a week he would make sure they were safe.
"Often the businessmen would just shrug off the initial visit and send them packing. The same evening something would happen to the business - it was either burgled or the windows would be shot up."
The Gunn brothers' activities spread to Bulwell and Arnold, with David moving to Bulwell in 2001. David Gunn and Terence Witts were monitored by police in 2004 and 2005 as part of their suspected involvement in an "organised crime group".
A mobile phone conversation was recorded where David Gunn said: "The police are trying to get to the little lieutenants, but they cannot get to us, the colonels and the captains." When Gunn appeared at Derby Crown Court in 2006, he was described as being involved in large-scale amphetamine trafficking. He was given an eight-and-a-half year prison sentence and was released from Lowdham Grange prison in 2009 - with a ban on setting foot in Nottinghamshire.
The Multi-Agency Public Protection Arrangements (MAPPA) Board categorised him as a high-risk offender. He was ordered to live in a bail hostel near Northampton, a significant distance from his six children and three grandchildren.
However, he returned to jail later that year for breaching parole conditions.
Marvyn Bradshaw
In August 2003, 22-year-old Marvyn Bradshaw went out to the the Sporting Chance pub in Bulwell with his best friend. They were regulars at several local pubs such as The Potters, The Scots Grey and The Lime Kiln.
They stayed late into the night at the Kersall Drive pub, leaving at 3.45am. Marvyn, from the Bestwood Estate, was a shopfitter who lived a clean life and wasn't involved in any crime. He hadn't been drinking on the night as he was driving his friend and two other men home from the pub.
As they left the car park, a gunman standing in the bright car headlights fired into the car, fatally shooting Marvyn. The shooting caused shock and sadness, with around 700 people attending his funeral at St Mary's Church in Bulwell.
It later came to light that Marvyn was an innocent victim and the shot was actually meant for his best friend, Jamie Gunn, who was in the car with him.
Jamie Gunn
Jamie Gunn was in the back of the car and held Marvyn in his arms after he was shot. Despite his efforts, he couldn't save his friend's life.
His friends and family believe this tragic event started a downward spiral that would end his own life. Jamie, a former student at Padstow Comprehensive School and resident of Bestwood Estate, began drinking heavily and neglecting his health.
He would vanish for days, lost weight, and looked pale and thin. In spring 2004, he found out he was going to be a father, but even this news wasn't enough to save him.
Jamie's health got worse and worse, his body couldn't fight off illnesses, and, in August 2004 - just a few days after the person who killed Marvyn Bradshaw was told he would spend the rest of his life in prison - Jamie was found dead at home. He was only 19.
Jamie was laid to rest close to his friend Marvyn Bradshaw in a cemetery in Bulwell. The official reason for his death was pneumonia, but lots of people thought that he wouldn't have died if it hadn't been for the shooting a year earlier.
One of those people was Colin Gunn, and he wanted to get back at the shooter Michael O'Brien - or his family.
Michael O'Brien
Nicknamed Jay or JJ, O'Brien spent his teenage years getting into trouble with the police and skipping school. By the time he was 20, he was going in and out of prison.
And it was while he was in Moorlands Prison in Doncaster in 2001 that someone from a rival gang cut his face. O'Brien needed 60 stitches, the cut went from his temple to his chin.
His attacker, from The Meadows, said he hurt O'Brien on purpose to seriously harm him - because he was from St Ann's. The attack seemed to make him even more bitter and hateful towards people.
On the night that Marvyn Bradshaw was shot in 2003, O'Brien had been looking for trouble. Earlier that evening, he had been turned away from Obsessions nightclub in Thurland Street, Nottingham, because he was wearing trainers and a hooded tracksuit top, and he threatened to kill a doorman there.
O'Brien and his mate Gary Salmon were denied entry to the Sporting Chance pub where they had gone to pick someone up from a lock-in. An argument broke out and O'Brien, 23, was hit with an ashtray, causing a cut above his eye.
The two then went to Salmon's house in Bulwell, changed into dark clothes, gloves and balaclavas. Salmon brought out a single-barreled shotgun wrapped in a coat.
O'Brien took it, returned to the pub, and shot Marvyn Bradshaw. In July 2004, O'Brien, from Aspley, was sentenced to life imprisonment with a minimum term of 24 years, later reduced to 18 years. (Three years later, Salmon would also receive a life sentence with a minimum term of 18 years.)
However, O'Brien's behaviour in court only intensified the animosity others felt towards him. He threw a cup of water over Marvyn Bradshaw's family, made a nasty comment about his victim, and shouted 'I'm not bothered, I'm a bad boy, I don't care'.
Inside prison, he was hard to reach. So Colin Gunn decided to take revenge on those closest to him instead.
John and Joan Stirland
John Stirland always said his stepson Michael O'Brien had brought trouble to his door. Mr Stirland had tried to be a father to the 14-year-old, after marrying Michael's mother Joan following the death of her husband.
But his connection to O'Brien would lead to his death. There is no doubt that the Stirlands suspected they could be targeted following O'Brien's arrest for Marvyn Bradshaw's murder.
On September 14, 2003, just a week after O'Brien was arrested, shots were fired through the windows of their Carlton home while they were watching television.
Scared they would lose touch with family, they didn't accept witness protection from the police, but left the city the next day.
They moved to Goole, but in December that year, they relocated to Trusthorpe on the Lincolnshire coast. They couldn't have chosen a worse place. David Gunn owned a caravan just 12 miles down the coast.
The Gunns' connections were so strong that they found out where the Stirlands were living from two former British Telecom workers.
The plan to kill them was made in David Gunn's caravan at Kingfisher Caravan Park in Ingoldmells. On August 8, 2004, Mr Stirland, 55, and his 51-year-old wife were shot by two men with Beretta pistols.
No-one was found guilty of their murder. But in June 2006 Colin Gunn was given a 35-year sentence for planning to murder the Stirlands, while John Russell of Northcote Way, Bulwell, was put in jail for at least 30 years, and Michael McNee, of no fixed address, was locked up for at least 25 years, all for the same offence.
There was a small riot on Bestwood Estate after the convictions were announced, with a crowd of about 30 people attacking police with petrol bombs and bricks.
Colin Gunn's story didn't stop there. In fact, at the time it wasn't even part of it at all - Colin Gunn was not named, because he had a further trial coming up relating to police corruption.
And that would reveal how he had been able to stay out of the reach of the law for so long.
Charles Fletcher
PC 'Charlie' Fletcher from Arnold was working for Colin Gunn while he was a police officer in Nottinghamshire. The documentary said he got £2,000 a month extra for giving out secret information.
He started as a police officer in December 1999 and worked at Radford Road CID. He gave away secrets about big cases, like the murders of John and Joan Stirland, Marian Bates's murder in Arnold, a near-fatal assault, and alleged road rage incidents.
While he was waiting for his trial, he wrote a letter to his work friends at Radford Road. He said: "I do not expect any forgiveness for my actions and do not ask for it. I can only offer my deepest apologies in betraying your trust and confidence in me. It's something I am immeasurably ashamed of and shall have to live with for the rest of my life.
"I feel my greed, vanity and naivety were to blame and the fact I didn't have the strength or courage to face up to my wrongdoing and tell someone before the inevitable happened. I was blind to the consequences of my actions and chose to ignore them."
In October 2006, just a few months after his former boss Colin Gunn was imprisoned, he was sentenced to seven years behind bars. He and PC Phil Parr of Oxclose Lane police station admitted conspiring to commit misconduct in a public office.
The following year, 40-year-old Colin Gunn, then residing in Rise Park, was sentenced to nine years for his role in the scandal that rocked the police service.
Judge Frank Chapman said: "It is right it is publicly demonstrated the extent to which he managed to undermine the police service in Nottingham."
John Dawes
While the Gunns and their Bestwood Cartel were rightly the focus of much attention regarding criminal activity in the city, other drug lords with links to the gang were operating elsewhere in the county.
In fact, when a teenage Colin Gunn began carrying out burglaries and engaging in other criminal behaviour, he belonged to a gang run by the Dawes family, who later established themselves in Sutton-in-Ashfield.
John Dawes amassed a fortune of £8.3 million through his heroin and amphetamine empire spanning Nottinghamshire and Derbyshire, but was jailed for 24 years in 2005 on charges of money laundering and conspiracy to deal in drugs.
After his release from prison in 2017, Dawes appeared at Nottingham Crown Court regarding six vehicles that had been seized as assets belonging to him. He informed the court that he was working 74 hours a week "just to get my head above water".
According to the court, Dawes was employed through an agency and was unable to secure a bank account.
Gary Hardy
Gary Hardy, from Mansfield, was one of the big drug dealers in Nottinghamshire. He lived a fancy life with sports cars and pricey homes.
A court heard he made £1,983,530 from crime. The police said he had at least five Ferraris and five Porsches. He paid his kids' school fees of £27,000 in cash. He also ran a lottery where other big criminals in Notts could win his £30,000 Mercedes for £1,000 a ticket.
The winner was picked based on the Lotto Bonus Ball number of the day. Colin and David Gunn were some of the players.
In 2008, Hardy was sent to jail for 20 years for planning to supply heroin and amphetamines, money laundering and having criminal property. His brother Paul Hardy was also found guilty of drug crimes. He died in HMP Lowdham Grange in 2012 while serving a 12-year sentence.
James Brodie
There are many others who could be on this list. For example, Patrick Marshall, who worked for Gunn but upset him by going on a £100,000 cocaine run to Lincolnshire without Gunn's permission.
Or John McSally, who tried to kill youth worker Derek Senior. A court was told that Gunn paid McSally £3,000 to shoot Patrick Marshall in February 2004 outside the Park Tavern pub in Basford. (McSally was found guilty of murder; Gunn was never charged in connection with the case.)
The case of James Brodie still remains a mystery. Brodie, from Bulwell, has been on the police's wanted list since the tragic murder of jeweller Marian Bates during a failed robbery at the Time Centre in Arnold on September 30, 2003.
Peter Williams was sentenced to 22 years in prison in 2005 after being found guilty of her murder. However, Stafford Crown Court heard that while he was involved in the robbery, it was believed that an accomplice, thought to be Brodie, fired the shot that killed Marian.
Williams told the police that Colin Gunn was the mastermind behind the raid, but he was never arrested. In 2013, the police confirmed for the first time that they believed James Brodie had been killed by his criminal associates.
Despite searching numerous locations including farmland in Lincolnshire, a fish farm in Leicestershire, flats in Top Valley and Bulwell, and even part of Glasgow, his body has never been found.
