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Prison staff ordered to address convicted murderer as 'Mr' after human rights complaint
* From: NewsCore
* December 06, 2010 1:54AM
Prisoner Colin Gunn has won the right to be called Mr by guards Source: The Daily Telegraph
ONE of Britain's most notorious murderers has invoked his human rights to force prison officers to call him "Mr," it has emerged
Staff have been ordered to address Colin Gunn, a "double-A" category inmate serving a 35-year sentence for ordering the murder of two grandparents, as "Mr Gunn."
The ruling came after Gunn complained to the prisons and probation ombudsman saying he was not being treated with sufficient respect.
The ombudsman upheld his complaint and as a result prison officers were told to address Gunn in a manner of his choosing.
Instead of opting to have them use his first name, however, Gunn apparently felt the "Mr" prefix more befitted his position as a mob boss.
Even while in jail, he remains the leader of his gang, which was once one of the country's most feared and violent criminal cartels.
From his cell, Gunn issued a statement hailing the decision as a victory over "rude, ignorant prison staff" and calling on other inmates to follow his example in demanding respect.
The decision was strongly criticized by the POA, the prison officers' union. Colin Moses, its national chairman, said: "It is political correctness gone mad. You have to earn respect, not demand it. The inmates certainly don't treat the prison officers with respect. Everything is geared to the prisoner.
"We agree that people have to be treated with decency, but what is decency? Where is the decency to the staff? We have the highest rate of assaults on staff ever. Yet we spend time, energy and money on cases such as Gunn's."
Gunn's violent drug-dealing empire, which he ran with his brother David, was largely responsible for earning its home, Nottingham, the nickname of "Assassination City" in the past decade.
Gunn was jailed in 2006 for conspiracy to murder John and Joan Stirland, who were shot two years earlier by Gunn's hitmen because they were related to someone who had crossed him.
In January, London's Sunday Times revealed that Gunn was updating a Facebook page with 565 "friends" from his cell and using it to issue threats against his enemies.
In one posting on his site, which was subsequently closed down, Gunn wrote: "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."
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