Gang leader who orchestrated shooting of Lincolnshire couple launches legal challenge
Colin Gunn was jailed for at least 35 years in 2006 for conspiracy to murder
Last updated 14th Mar 2024
A gang leader serving a life sentence for orchestrating the murders of an innocent couple on the Lincolnshire coast is bringing a High Court challenge over whether he poses a high risk of escape from prison.
Nottingham crime boss Colin Gunn was jailed for at least 35 years in 2006 for conspiracy to murder John and Joan Stirland, who were shot in Trusthorpe to gain "revenge" on their son.
Now he's taking legal action claiming a decision last year not to 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".
The Ministry of defence rejects his case
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".
At a hearing on Wednesday, Gunn's lawyers argued that the MoJ should reconsider its decision following an oral hearing where he can make his case over whether he could be of "standard" risk.
Gunn was last classified as being of "exceptional" risk in March 2013, due to allegations that he had tried to corrupt a member of staff as part of an escape plan, before being downgraded to "high risk" in September that year, a judge in London was told.
Leonie Hirst, representing Gunn, said in written arguments that the MoJ had placed "undue and irrational reliance on factors which were irrelevant and which were not supported or were overtly contradicted by the evidence".
He's said to shown "good behaviour" in recent years
The barrister said some "intelligence concerns" over "illicit mobile phone use" were "speculative" or "entirely innocuous" and were not relevant.
She said an assessment 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 said Gunn is a "trusted inmate" who has shown "good behaviour" in recent years, having held prison jobs and mentoring roles.
She said his status means he frequently moves cells, is escorted everywhere while off his prison wing, has supervised visits and is "woken every hour at night by staff observing him with a torch shone through the wicket in his cell door".
David Manknell, for the MoJ, said in written arguments that Gunn's claim should be dismissed, adding that prison policy "does not provide for oral hearings for escape risk classification reviews".
He said Gunn was previously classified as having an "exceptional" escape risk due 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 has previously hit the headlines for his jail experiences
Mr Manknell said the classification decision had taken into account Gunn's "access to finances, resources and/or associates that could assist an escape attempt", his "position in an organised crime group", the nature of his offending, the length of time he had left to serve, and "his determination to communicate with outside associates in a way that was unmonitored, as evidenced by the illicit telephony".
Gunn, once said to have run the Bestwood Estate in Nottingham with his brother, David Gunn, built up a multimillion-pound empire based on drugs, extortion and violent crime and played a part in the city previously being known as Britain's gun crime capital.
The prisoner, who was also handed a nine-year sentence in 2007 for bribery of two police officers and conspiracy to corrupt, has previously hit the headlines over his jail experiences.
In 2010, he claimed to have won the right to be addressed as "Mr" by prison staff after complaining to the Prisons Ombudsman.
Two years later, he urged fellow inmates at his then jail, HMP Belmarsh, to complain that they had been overcharged for sending A4-size mail.
The hearing before Mr Justice Saini is due to conclude on Wednesday, with a ruling expected at a later date.