Cumbria shootings inquest: Derrick Bird’s shooting spree

Bird, a 52-year-old taxi driver, went on a shooting rampage as he drove around west Cumbria on 2 June last year before killing himself.

At the inquest into the deaths, which began today, Bird’s eldest son Graeme said the day before the shootings, his father was worried he was being “set up” and would be sent to prison.

The inquest heard that on the day of the killings Bird repeatedly stopped his Citroen Picasso car, called over his victims and fired at their faces with his sawn-off shotgun. At times, he left his vehicle and shot his victims in the head at point blank range with a .22 rifle.

Lucky escape

Ashleigh Glaister, a 15-year-old schoolgirl, had a lucky escape. When Bird beckoned her over, she spotted one of his guns and ducked as he pulled the trigger. He missed and she ran off.

Details of what happened were read out by Detective Chief Superintendent Iain Goulding, from Cumbria Police, the senior investigating officer.

Heard in silence

His opening presentation to the jury, lasting an hour and a half, was heard in silence by more than 100 people at the Energus Centre in Workington. Relatives of those killed held their hands to their faces while he was talking. Also present were relatives of Bird.

Det Chief Supt Goulding explained what happened to Bird’s twin brother David. “Evidence suggests he confronted his brother, semi-clothed, in bed. He fired at him repeatedly with the .22 rifle. A total of 11 spent cartridges were recovered at the scene, the maximum number of rounds the rifle would carry.”

“He fired at him repeatedly with the .22 rifle.” Det Chief Supt Iain Goulding

David Bird was shot in the neck, face, head and back, before his brother drove to the home of the family solicitor Kevin Commons and shot him twice in the head.

Motives

Det Chief Supt Goulding confirmed many of the motives that are thought to have led Bird to carry out the murders. They included an investigation by Revenue and Customs into unpaid income tax and insults from fellow taxi drivers over his personal hygiene.

He said Bird had for “some time” been worried about the tax investigation and asked for help from his twin brother David and Mr Commons. He called David 44 times on 30 May.

They met the following day and appeared to be having a “serious conversation” outside David’s home in Lamplugh.

In a statement to the inquest, David’s daughter, Tracey Stephenson, said that Derrick Bird had been confiding in her father over his tax affairs. He had told him that he had been declaring only £100 wages, while tax officials had found he had more than £50,000 savings and were now pusuing him.

Bird had frequently visited her father, “moaning for hours”, she added. Her father had told her: “Uncle Derrick needed to be sectioned. He was going mad.”

‘Irrational fears about being imprisoned’

Det Chief Supt Goulding said: “Derrick Bird appeared to have developed irrational fears about being imprisoned for the tax matters, made worse by the belief his brother and solicitor were conspiring against him.”

Bird and Mr Commons were due to meet on the day of the killings, with Bird convinced he would be arrested and “immediately go to prison”. The night before, Bird spoke to fellow taxi driver Peter Leder, telling him: “You won’t see me again.”

Bird’s son Graeme told the inquest his father had not been “his normal self” the day before the killings. When he visited him at home on 1 June, he “sat on the sofa with his head on his hands”.

“He was getting arrested and going to prison.” Derrick Bird’s son Graeme

Graeme Bird added: “He said he was going for a meeting with the accountant the following day and he said he was getting arrested and going to prison. He thought he was being set up and he was going to attend this meeting and be arrested. Me and my wife tried to talk to him and when he left we thought he was back to normal and he was going to get some advice.”

Graeme Bird has never spoken in public about the actions of his father, writes Darshna Soni.

Soon after the shootings, he issued a brief statement, telling of the enormous difficulty his family have faced in understanding why Derrick Bird did what he did. Today, he came to give evidence at the coroner's court and for the first time, we heard him speak of his father's last few days.

Derrick Bird's family knew him as a doting father. Graeme had recently had a baby boy and said his father would visit his grandson every single day. But in the weeks leading up to his death, he'd become convinced he was being set up, obsessed that he was going to go to prison for tax avoidance. 

On the night before the shootings, he visited Graeme, but didn't seem his normal self. "Derrick was agitated and sat on the sofa with his head in his hands." Graeme tried to reassure his father and thought he'd managed to persuade him to seek help. But as Derrick Bird left, he handed him five hundred pounds in cash, telling him it was for the baby. His family would never see him alive again.

Inheritance

Also giving evidence, Bird’s eldest brother Brian said Derrick was due to receive the same amount of money their brother David had been given by their parents years ago to help his struggling car mechanic business.

David Bird received £12,000, and Brian said he and Derrick were to split the first £25,000 of their mother’s estate when she died, with all three brothers sharing the remaining amount. Brian Bird said he was aware of the arrangements, but did not know if Derrick was.

Coroner David Roberts told the jury: “The events of 2 June were unprecedented. Many people’s lives were touched in ways they can never have imagined.

“The events of 2 June were unprecedented.”
Coroner David Roberts

“To properly understand these proceedings you will have to hear and understand distressing and emotional evidence. Your role in this case cannot be overstated. You will be making the final findings, you will be returning the verdicts.”

The hearing, in Workington, will analyse all 13 deaths, including Bird’s, in chronological order and is expected to last up to six weeks.

There will be an examination of his state of mind at the time and the events leading up to the death of his first victim, his twin brother David.

13 deaths

In order, the hearings will investigate the deaths of David Bird, 5, Bird’s solicitor Kevin Commons, 60, Bird’s taxi driver colleague Darren Rewcastle, 43, retired security worker Kenneth Fishburn, 71, mother-of-two Susan Hughes, 57, retired couple James and Jennifer Jackson, aged 67 and 68, part-time mole catcher Isaac Dixon, 65, farmer and rugby league player Garry Purdham, 31, retired Sellafield worker Michael Pike, 64, pensioner Jane Robinson, 66, estate agent Jamie Clark, 23, and finally Bird himself.

11 injured

Bird, from Rowrah, also injured 11 others in Lamplugh, Frizington, Whitehaven, Egremont, Gosforth and Seascale before he was found dead in a wooded area near Boot – just over three hours after his first victim was found by officers. He fired a total of 54 rounds of ammunition from the two weapons.

An independent police review into how Cumbria Police reacted on the day was due to be published in January. But it will now be used in evidence at the inquest.

Gun owner

Bird was a hard-working family man who had kept guns from the age of 17 and became a grandfather two weeks before the shootings.

In 1990, he was sacked from his job at British Nuclear Fuels Limited after being convicted of stealing from the company. He was sentenced to six months’ imprisonment, suspended for 12 months.

Derrick Bird’s twin brother David

Bird's killing spree on 2 June 2010

Early morning: Bird leaves his home in Rowrah and makes his way to his brother David's house in Lamplugh; his first victim is not found for several hours.

5.30: Bird is reportedly spotted outside the home of family solicitor Kevin Commons in Frizington.

10.20: Police receive a call saying shots were fired in Frizington; armed officers find Mr Commons dead in the driveway of his home.

10.33: Police receive another call saying shots have been fired in Duke St, Whitehaven; taxi driver Darren Rewcastle is shot dead and former soldier Don Reed shot in the back; unarmed police officers in a van pursue Bird, but lose him; RAF helicopters are scrambled.

11.00: David Bird's body is found; police advise people to stay inside.

11.00-11.35:

Kenneth Fishburn, 71, a retired Sellafield worker, is shot dead on the old bridge in Egremont.
Susan Hughes, 57, a mother-of-two, is killed as she walks home with her shopping in Egremont.
Jennifer Jackson, 68, and her husband James, 67, are shot dead.
Bird shoots Isaac Dixon, 65, in a field near Carleton Wood while the part-time mole catcher talks to a farmer.
Rugby league player Garry Purdham, 31, is shot dead at point blank range as he works in a field in Gosforth.
Retired Sellafield worker Michael Pike, 64, is killed while riding his bike through Seascale.
Jane Robinson, 66, is shot dead as she delivers home shopping catalogues.
Estate agent Jamie Clark, 23, dies after Bird opens fire on his car as he is driving just outside Seascale.

12.30: The last known eyewitness sees Bird alive. Officers find his car dumped in Boot with one gun inside, and realise he is on foot with a rifle.

12.41: Police name the suspect as Derrick Bird and issue a photograph of him.

1.30: Sellafield nuclear plant goes into lockdown. Bird is found dead at a wooded area, a remote beauty spot outside the village of Boot.