One of Britain’s most notorious gangsters used Facebook to threaten his enemies while serving a 35-year sentence in a maximum security prison, it emerged on Sunday.
Colin Gunn, an underworld boss who helped plot the murder of two grandparents, sent messages to 565 “friends” after being transferred to a prison where he said officials had a relaxed attitude to social networking.
“I will be home one day and I can’t wait to look into certain people’s eyes and see the fear of me being there,” Gunn wrote in one message, the London Sunday Times reported.
In another, he said: “It’s good to have an outlet to let you know how I am, some of you will be in for a good slagging, some have let me down badly and some will be named and shamed, fucking rats.”
Gunn, 42, was jailed in 2006 for the conspiracy to murder Joan and John Stirland, who were tracked down to the Lincolnshire seaside village of Trusthope, where they were killed in cold blood. Joan Stirland’s son, Michael O’Brien, had killed a friend of Gunn’s.
The Ministry of Justice said it was “extremely concerned” that Gunn had access to Facebook because prisoners were banned from accessing social networking sites. Prisoners are only meant to have access to the Internet for educational purposes and under close monitoring.
However, many are believed to be logging on through telephones and other gadgets smuggled into prisons.
“We are extremely concerned that prisoners are able to update Facebook and other social networking sites either through illicit technology or via outside contacts,” an ministry spokesman said. “The Public Order Act 1986 created offenses dealing with causing harassment, alarm or distress. We will not hesitate to refer to the police any published material that appears to breach this.”
“We recognize that it is deeply distressing for victims and their families and friends and we have made it clear to Facebook that we do not think it acceptable or appropriate for these sites to remain active, something Facebook agrees with,” the spokesman said.
Gunn’s Facebook site has now been shut down, a source said.
The latest Internet breach comes after Jade Braithwaite, jailed for knifing to death Ben Kinsella, 16, used Facebook to taunt his victim’s family.
Earlier this month, relatives of victims of violent crime called for the introduction of electronic antisocial behavior (restraining) orders, or “E-Asbos” to stop convicted killers bragging online.
Gunn was jailed with his brother David. The two considered themselves kings of the Bestwood housing estate in Nottingham, England, from which they ran their drugs and extortion rackets. They boasted they had made millions from drug deals and drove around in powerful cars, jewelery dripping from their necks and wrists.
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