Bird shot twin brother 11 times before random gun rampage

The horrific details of the taxi driver’s ruthless killing spree have been revealed for the first time at the inquest into the deaths of his 12 victims.

The 52-year-old began his murders on June 2, last year by blasting his brother David in his bedroom in the early hours of the morning.

Days before, David told his estranged wife Susan that his brother was “going mad” and needed to be sectioned.

The court heard that Bird feared he would be sent to jail due to a tax investigation involving up to £60,000 of income, some of which was not declared.

Relatives of the dead held their hands to their faces as the full horror of the rampage through West Cumbria was revealed yesterday.

During the murders Bird, carrying a 12-bore sawn-off shotgun and a .22 rifle, had repeatedly stopped his Citroën Picasso car, called victims over as if to ask the time or for directions, then blasted them in the face with a shotgun.

On more than one occasion he left his vehicle, changed his weapon to the rifle, and shot his victims in the head at point-blank range.

His son Graeme, 29, said when visiting Bird’s home on June 1 his father was “sat on the sofa with his head on his hands”.

“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 said.

In the early hours of June 2 Bird left his shabby terrace house in Rowrah, armed with the shotgun and rifle, and travelled to his twin’s house.

David Bird’s bullet-riddled body – he had suffered 15 different entry and exit wounds – was later found at about 11am by a neighbour.

Bird went on to murder solicitor Kevin Commons, 60, at his home in Frizington.

Mr Commons was shot in his car sometime after 10am. Witnesses said he managed to scramble out of the vehicle but Bird pursued him into his house and shot him twice in the head.

Next he went to the taxi rank in Whitehaven where he had suffered ridicule from other cabbies over his “personal hygiene and the cleanliness of his taxi”.

He shot dead fellow driver Darren Rewcastle, 43, before driving to Egremont where he murdered Susan Hughes, 57, a mother-of-two who was carrying her shopping.

He then pulled up next to Kenneth Fishburn, 71, who was shot at close range and killed instantly.

Bird went on to kill Isaac Dixon, 65, Jennifer Jackson, 68 and her husband James, 67, in the village of Wilton, local farmer and amateur rugby league player, Garry Purdham, 31, near Gosforth, estate agent Jamie Clark, 23, the youngest victim, outside Seascale and Mike Pike, 64, and Jane Robinson, 66, in the town.

Ms Robinson was the final murder victim, though Bird went on to injure four other people before turning the gun on himself in woodland just outside the village of Boot.

The court heard that Bird knelt down on the ground, placed the rifle barrel on the centre of his forehead and fired a single round, killing himself instantly.

His body was found by police shortly before 2pm. He had fired 29 shotgun cartridges and 80 rounds of the .22 rifle.

Police later found paperwork relating to his financial difficulties and “prominently” placed in the kitchen were the deeds to his home.

Detective Chief Superintendent Iain Goulding, senior investigating officer for Cumbria Police 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.”

The hearing – which will analyse all 13 deaths in chronological order and is expected to last as long as six weeks – continues today.