Gangland UK: The Inside Story of Britain's Most Evil Gangsters Read Online Free PDF Page A

amount of money’ to withdraw his testimony against the four drunks, but he refused. Sentencing McSally, Mr Justice Pitchers said, ‘You are an incredibly dangerous man – ready, for money, to kill without a second thought.’ Ordering McSally to serve at least 35 years, the judge added, ‘Evenby the warped standards of those who enforce their will by violence, these were evil offences.’
    McSally, allegedly acting on Gunn’s orders, had also shot gang associate 46-year-old Patrick Marshall outside the Park Tavern pub in Basford on 8 February 2004. Marshall was Colin Gunn’s odd-job man, but he had got on the wrong side of him after going on a £ 100,000 cocaine run to Lincolnshire without his boss’s permission. Then word spread around that Marshall was trying to get a gun to shoot associate ‘Scotch Al’ after a feud. Marshall contacted McSally, who found a gun and went to meet him. But instead of handing him the weapon, McSally blasted him in the head in the pub car park. The getaway car was recovered by police and had Colin Gunn’s overdue phone bill inside it and three photographs of his brother, David. McSally is now serving a life sentence for this offence. His co-accused, Craig McKay, denied any involvement in the shooting and was cleared by a jury.
    Today, tales abound on the Bestwood Estate about Gunn’s ruthless streak. It is said that he once broke the arms of one of his own men after he drove badly and ‘disrespected’ him. People were shot through their hands for carrying out burglaries on the estate without his permission. People moving to the estate were visited and told that Gunn ruled the roost. Many were too scared to stay.
    A senior officer said, ‘These are not normal villains. They would shoot someone to get respect. They are extremely vicious and brutal people. The smallest slight to Gunn would end with a severe beating. Some of his guys are just psychopaths. There are a lot of bodies –dead and alive – that have the hallmark of Colin Gunn. I don’t think there is anyone who is grateful for ever having met him.’
    Police realised that, if they were to bring down Gunn, they would have to establish a new way of working. Knowing that at some stage they would come across corruption in the force, they set up operations within operations, like a Russian matrioshka doll. These were kept so secret that officers outside the squad had no idea that they existed.
    To capture Gunn, officers identified his lieutenants, thugs and drug-dealers and started at the bottom, taking them out one by one, piling the pressure on Gunn to encourage him to get involved personally. Chief Constable Green told his men, ‘Shake these criminals to the core and lock them away in any way that is ethical and lawful.’ The main operation was called Stealth, and beneath that, cloaked in secrecy, was Utah, which had been set up solely to catch Gunn.
    It soon became known that Gunn was heavily involved in the murders of 55-year-old textile worker John Stirland and his wife, Joan, 53, who were tracked down and murdered at their seaside bungalow in Trusthorpe, Lincolnshire, on 8 August 2004. Mrs Stirland’s 22- year-old son, Michael O’Brien, had shot dead an innocent man outside a Nottingham pub in 2003. The victim, 22- year-old shop-fitter Marvyn Bradshaw, was a friend of Jamie Gunn, Colin’s nephew. It later emerged that Bradshaw, a family man with no links to crime or gangs, was killed after being mistaken for someone who had assaulted O’Brien in The Sporting Chance pub with an ashtray.
    There had been a ‘lock-in’ during the night inquestion. Customers were inside enjoying a late drink and, at the door, a young man was refused admission. He was Michael ‘JJ’ O’Brien. He had already been turned away from two other pubs for wearing trainers and a tracksuit top.
    A scuffle took place and O’Brien, a small-time drug-dealer , who had already served jail time, now the worse for wear with drink, was hit in the