A JURY will decide whether corruption and failures by police led to the murder of a couple in Lincolnshire.

John and Joan Stirland were found dead in their home in Trusthorpe in August 2004.

Mr Stirland had been shot six times, Mrs Stirland four times.

Three men – including Bestwood crime boss Colin Gunn – were jailed in 2006 for conspiracy to murder them.

An inquest at Lincoln Crown Court into their deaths will look at the events leading up to the murders and whether more could have been done to protect the couple.

Coroner Karon Monaghan QC told Lincoln Crown Court yesterday it would consider whether police "properly dealt with intelligence or information pointing to a risk to Mr and Mrs Stirland and whether they took steps they should have taken to properly protect them".

She said: "It will also require the jury to consider whether police corruption played any role in their murders."

The inquest is expected to last until the end of the month and jurors will hear from a number of witnesses including police officers and BT staff.

Mrs Monaghan outlined the events leading up to the couple's murder on August 8, 2004 and said the murders were retribution after 22-year-old Marvyn Bradshaw was shot dead outside the Sporting Chance pub, in Bulwell, in August 2003 by Mrs Stirland's son, Michael O'Brien.

Nottingham crime lord Colin Gunn's nephew Jamie was one of the people with Mr Bradshaw at the time.

Jamie Gunn died the following year and the inquest heard his death was believed to be related to the trauma of seeing his friend shot.

Mrs Monaghan said: "It seems that concerns developed within the criminal community that Jamie Gunn was the intended victim.

"Notts police discovered that certain parts of the criminal community intended to avenge the death of Marvyn Bradshaw and one obvious target was Mr O'Brien.

"If they could not get to him, because he was in prison, then the threat might well be extended to his family."

She added there were a number of incidents after Mr Bradshaw's death which could "rightly be described as retribution attacks", including when five shots were fired at the Stirlands' home in Carlton, Nottingham, in September 2003.

The couple moved to Lincolnshire to escape danger.

Police officers from Nottingham were assigned to protect them. They were warned the couple could be in even greater danger after Jamie Gunn died.

Mrs Monaghan said: "It certainly appears that Notts Police, or at least one of their officers, knew that Jamie Gunn having died was something that would increase the threat to Mr and Mrs Stirland."

The inquest heard concerns were raised by the Stirlands on August 8, 2004 after a neighbour told them about seeing a strange man in their garden.

A police officer from Notts who spoke to Mrs Stirland contacted Lincolnshire police. But by the time officers went to their house at 9.30pm, the couple were already dead.

The three people convicted of conspiracy to murder Mr and Mrs Stirland, include Colin Gunn, 39, of Revelstoke Way, Michael McNee, 22, of no fixed address and John Russell, of Northcote Way.

They were sentenced to a combined 90 years in jail.

sarah.gillett@nottinghamevening post.co.uk