Derrick Bird inquests: Day eight

Moments before, Bird had arrived at the house of Jason Carey, diving officer at the Solway Sub-Aqua Club where Bird was a member and had fallen out with the committee.

Bird sounded his taxi horn but Mr Carey, having worked a night shift at Sellafield, was in bed and did not answer, an inquest was told.

By the time his wife Deborah got to the door, Bird was already driving off on the morning of June 2 last year.

He reached the bottom of Mr Carey's drive in the picturesque village of Wilton and then almost immediately shot Jennifer Jackson, 68, once in the chest with his shotgun and twice in the head with his .22 rifle.

Bird drove a short distance up the hill where he coincidentally came across Mrs Jackson's husband, James, 67, who was talking to neighbour Christine Hunter-Hall and her husband, Stephen, outside their front garden.

Bird pointed the shotgun out of the driver's window and shot Mr Jackson in the forehead, killing him instantly.

Mrs Hunter-Hall was hit in the back and suffered extensive injuries but survived.

Giving evidence at the inquests into the deaths of Bird and the 12 victims he gunned down on his shooting spree, Mrs Carey said she saw the taxi pull away from her house and heard a bang when Mrs Jackson was shot but thought it was the sound of a car door and did not notice her body.

She said: "I walked to the bottom of our drive and I looked up and I could see a small part of the car and I could see Steve and Christine stood in their garden.

"There was a brown horse in the field and I heard another bang, it was a much louder bang. I knew that it had come from a gun and the horse bolted.

"The next thing Steve and Christine weren't there any more."

Mrs Carey said she did not see Mr Jackson but her attention was then caught by the taxi.

"The taxi came back down the hill really fast. I ran away, I ran back to our drive and to the house because I thought he was coming back for me."

As the housewife stood in the alcove of her house at about 11.10am, the taxi drove past and away but she did not recognise the driver.

She said armed police arrived at the scene up to 10 minutes later and she gave a description of the vehicle.

Two plain-clothed officers then came and told her and neighbours to stay indoors, keep the doors locked and close their curtains.

Mrs Carey woke up her husband and told him their retired neighbours had been shot dead.

They turned on the television in their bedroom.

"I remember sitting on the edge of the bed and then it said who they were looking for," she said.

"Derrick Bird's picture came up on the telly. I just screamed."

Hours later she went outside to a police officer positioned outside her home.

She said: "I remember saying to him 'have they got him yet?' because I was worried he was going to come back because he came to our house.

"And the policeman said 'it's all right we've got him'.

"I said 'apprehended him or got him "got him"?' And he said 'Don't worry, he's not coming back'," Mrs Carey said as she bursting into tears at the inquest in Workington.

Bird drove to the Careys home in Wilton after shooting dead part-time mole catcher and retired Sellafield worker Isaac Dixon on a single track road in the nearby village of Carleton.

Mr Dixon, 65, known to family and friends as Spike, received fatal shotgun wounds to the chest and hip and was found lying face down on a grass verge.

Passing motorist Keith Long told the hearing how he had slowed down on the Egremont to Haile road to let Bird pass in the opposite direction as the taxi approached Mr Dixon.

The manufacturing team leader at Sellafield saw Bird lean over to speak to his victim but drove off unaware that something sinister was happening.

Mr Long said the taxi was travelling up to 60mph and he had to slow down to avoid a collision.

"I decided to pull over to the verge to let this vehicle pass and I flashed my lights" he said.

"As soon as I began to stop the other car began to stop as well. It stopped quite abruptly as if the driver wanted to speak to the pedestrian.

"Because it was a taxi I assumed he was asking for directions.

"I accelerated away and the last thing I saw was the driver of the taxi lean to the passenger side."

Mr Long carried on home, oblivious to what was happening behind him.

In a statement to the court, Mr Dixon's eldest son, Martyn, said he knew Bird as he too was a taxi driver in Whitehaven.

Bird barely knew his father though and he thought that he was in the wrong place at the wrong time.

He said: "I did have an argument with Derrick about three years ago, he was out on the drink.

"I was working for my sister-in-law on the taxi rank. I was on benefits but everything was above board and legal.

"Derrick started having a go about people working whilst on benefits - aimed at me shouting and swearing in front of other people.

"I said he was a self-righteous prick. I have not really spoken to him much since then."

He added: "In drink, Derrick was nasty but when sober he was quiet but there was something about him I couldn't put my finger on.

"I think that Derrick had a plan. Five cab drivers broke the front car rule and three of them were shot by him. The cab rule is an understanding that the front car on the rank gets the first fare, then you move forward."

Giving evidence, Mr Carey said he had known Bird for 12 years since he had joined the diving club.

He said: "I had a hand in training Derrick right from the start from a novice to dive leader, which was the grade he was at at the time of the events.

"Early on in his diving career he did everything by the book, did as he was told.

"Later on it was himself and a couple of others, who called themselves The Bad Boys Club, who looked to bend the rules. They pushed the envelope as to what they should or should not be doing.

"As branch officers we were all targeted."

Mr Carey said Bird would email around and copy him in over his "perceived grievances".

However, near the time of the killings, he said, he thought the matter had been settled.

Over the years he said he had spoken to him about disputes a "couple of times" but no more than anyone else in the club.

"If he held a grudge against me, which he clearly did, he hid it really well," he told the inquest jury.

Just a few weeks before the shootings Bird even went out of his way to have a pint with Mr Carey and his wife following a dive.

He said Bird had visited his home on several occasions but only for his taxi services and never socially.

HM Coroner for North and West Cumbria David Roberts asked if Bird was an aggressive man who lost his temper.

Mr Carey replied: "He was a quiet man when he was sober. Never used to bother anyone, was never aggressive.

"When he had a drink he would start to shoot off a bit at the mouth.

"To be honest, Derrick was used as a bit of a stool pigeon. He was primed for arguments but the opinions he voiced were never his own."

The inquests into the deaths of Bird's twin brother David Bird, 52, his solicitor Kevin Commons, 60, fellow taxi driver Darren Rewcastle, 43, Susan Hughes, 57, Kenneth Fishburn, 71, Mr Dixon, Mr and Mrs Jackson, Garry Purdham, 31, Jamie Clark, 23, Michael Pike, 64, Jane Robinson, 66, and Bird himself continue on Monday.