Ex-cartel boss whose brother bit off and ate man’s eyelids challenges escape bid

A criminal offense boss who’s serving life behind bars for his position in some of the infamous gangland crimes lately has launched a bid to have his jail circumstances relaxed.

Colin Gunn was banged up for no less than 35 years in 2006 for conspiracy to homicide John and Joan Stirland, who have been shot lifeless to realize “revenge” on their son.

Now Gunn is taking authorized motion in opposition to the Ministry of Justice, claiming a call final yr to not downgrade his escape threat classification was unfair and illegal.

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Gunn is serving time in Long Lartin jail, Worcestershire, and he says the ruling to maintain him in a high-security facility means he experiences a “significantly more intrusive and restrictive regime in the prison”.

He additionally says being held there prevents him shifting to a decrease safety class, and reduces his prospect of launch on licence on the finish of his minimal time period in 2040.

But the MoJ rejects his case, arguing that its determination to maintain him at Long Lartin was “entirely rational”.

John, 55, and nurse Joan, 51, have been discovered lifeless at their residence within the village of Trusthorpe, close to Mablethorpe, Lincs, in August 2004. They’d been killed in a revenge assault by gunmen working for gang boss Gunn.

The double homicide was a revenge assault after Joan’s son, Michael O’Brien, shot 22-year-old Marvyn Bradshaw lifeless exterior a Nottingham boozer the earlier yr. Criminals in Nottingham believed the bullet was meant for Bradshaw’s mate Jamie, who was Gunn’s nephew.

Colin’s brother David beforehand mentioned of one in all his extra grim assaults: “My pal has got one of them [referencing a gun] but I said ‘it’s not a murder mate, let me beat him. So I’ve bit his eyelids off and his lips off and swallowed them. But that’s what I had to do, because he had cut my daughter’s eye, so I thought ‘I’m going to scar you for life mate.”

At a listening to in London yesterday (Wednesday, March 13), Gunn’s attorneys argued that the MoJ ought to rethink its determination and permit an oral listening to the place the gangster could make his case that he needs to be thought-about a “standard” threat.

Gunn was final categorised as being of “exceptional” threat of escape in 2013 following allegations that he’d tried to deprave a member of employees as a part of an escape plan. He was then downgraded to “high risk” later that yr.

Barrister Leonie Hirst, representing Gunn, mentioned the MoJ had positioned “undue and irrational reliance on factors which were irrelevant and which were not supported or were overtly contradicted by the evidence”.

She mentioned an evaluation that Gunn is “the head of an organised crime group with associates able to assist in an escape attempt” is “unsupported by any evidence”.

Ms Hirst added that Gunn is a “trusted inmate” who has proven “good behaviour” lately, having held jail jobs and mentoring roles.

She mentioned his standing means he continuously strikes cells, is escorted in every single place whereas off his jail wing, has solely supervised visits and is woken each hour at evening by employees checking up on him with a torch.

But David Manknell, for the MoJ, mentioned Gunn’s declare needs to be dismissed, and that jail coverage “does not provide for oral hearings” for such issues.

He mentioned Gunn was beforehand categorised as having an “exceptional” escape threat attributable to “past intelligence of escape attempts … ties to serious organised crime groups” and offending “which evidenced a high level of determination to enact severe retribution”.

Gunn is believed to have run the Bestwood Estate in Nottingham along with his brother, David, and he constructed up a multimillion-pound empire primarily based on medication, extortion and violent crime. He was one of many causes that the town was labelled Britain’s gun crime capital.

The listening to earlier than Mr Justice Saini is because of conclude subsequent Wednesday, with a ruling anticipated at a later date.

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