Nottingham crime boss Colin Gunn loses escape risk legal challenge

A crime boss who orchestrated the murders of a couple has lost his High Court challenge over whether he poses a high risk of escape from prison.

Colin Gunn, from Nottingham, was jailed for life in 2006 for conspiracy to murder John and Joan Stirland as "revenge" on their son.

He had claimed a decision to not downgrade his escape risk classification was unlawful.

However, this has been rejected by a High Court judge.

Gunn was jailed for at least 35 years in 2006 for conspiracy to murder Mr and Mrs Stirland, who were shot in Trusthorpe, Lincolnshire.

He took 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, alleged the decision meant he experienced a "significantly more intrusive and restrictive regime in the prison".

At a hearing earlier this month, his lawyers claimed it prevented him moving to a lower security category and reduced his prospect of release on licence at the end of his minimum term in 2040.

But in a judgement on Monday, Mr Justice Saini dismissed Gunn's challenge.

The High Court previously heard Gunn was last classified as being of "exceptional" risk in March 2013, due to allegations 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.

In his 26-page judgement, Mr Justice Saini said: "Counsel for the claimant argued that his previous exceptional escape risk was of very limited if any relevance, since his downgrading by definition meant that the concerns which formed the basis for his previous classification were 'no longer valid'... I reject the logic of this submission."

He added: "The previous exceptional escape risk categorisation was because of intelligence suggesting that the claimant and a second prisoner were planning an escape involving a helicopter and firearms... The history forms part of the overall evidential picture."

The judge also ruled the decision not to hold an oral hearing over Gunn's classification was lawful, finding "it would have served no purpose".

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.

He was also handed a nine-year sentence in 2007 for bribery of two police officers and conspiracy to corrupt.

Follow BBC East Midlands on Facebook, on X, or on Instagram. Send your story ideas to [email protected] or via WhatsApp on 0808 100 2210.