TOP judges have ruled that being kept in an ultra-high security prison does not breach the human rights of a notorious gangland crime boss.
As reported, Colin Gunn, 47, was jailed for 35 years for ordering the murder of Trusthorpe grandparents John and Joan Stirland.
The couple were gunned down in a "revenge" killing on August 8, 2004, after Mrs Stirland's son, Michael O'Brien, shot 22-year-old Marvyn Bradshaw dead outside a Nottingham pub in August 2003.
Mr Stirland had been shot six times in the chest. His wife, a nurse, suffered four gunshot wounds.
The "criminal community" in Nottingham believed the bullet was meant for Mr Bradshaw's friend and Colin Gunn's nephew, Jamie.
He died in August 2004 from pneumonia, six days before the Stirlands were murdered.
Nottingham crime boss Gunn – who had persuaded police officers to provide him with information – and two other men were convicted of conspiring to murder the couple in 2006.
London's High Court heard Gunn, who made millions as the gangland ruler of the Bestwood Estate, Nottingham, said a move to upgrade him to exceptional escape risk conditions in May 2013 was unlawful.
He claimed that his rights were violated when he was moved from HMP Frankland, in County Durham, to "a prison within a prison", in HMP Belmarsh, amidst fears that he was attempting to corrupt a prison officer as part of an escape plot.
His lawyers argued his case before top judges Lord Justice Aikens and Mr Justice Bean.
Mr Justice Bean told the court that Gunn has remained "influential" among other prisoners while in jail, and was upgraded to exceptional escape risk status after information was received that a lackey of his had tried to corrupt a prison guard at HMP Frankland.
The judge said that the information acted on was that a prisoner had "passed a note to the officer on which was written the address of the officer's disabled brother, telling him, 'well, you now work for me and Colin Gunn'." On the basis of that information, Gunn was transferred to what was described at the time as a Silence Of The Lambs-style top security unit at Belmarsh, where he remained for four months.
His escape risk was eventually downgraded to "high", after it "subsequently became plain the intelligence received was unreliable," the judge added.
Gunn's barrister, Philip Rule, argued the four-month stint in top security unlawfully interfered with his ability to receive visitors and therefore his right to respect for private and family life.
He asked the court to make a declaration against Secretary of State for Justice Chris Grayling, that Gunn's convention rights had been violated.
But Mr Justice Bean, throwing out Gunn's case, said, although it later became clear that the information acted on was not reliable, "it was a reasonable decision at the time" to put him on lock-down.
"It is not the function of the court to micro-manage escape risk," the judge concluded, ordering Gunn to pay £1,000 towards the Government's legal costs.
