Catch: Bird and a fish he caught during one of his Thai trips
World traveller: Bird in Sharm-El-Sheikh, Egypt, in 2008
Reputation: Derrick Bird enjoyed scuba-diving holidays, but those who accompanied him said that he was known as a 'lech' and dubbed 'the dog'
Derrick Bird's Thai lover dumped him by text message a few weeks before he went on his gun rampage, friends have revealed.
The overweight and balding 52-year-old was obsessed with the woman he knew only as 'Hon' and had sent her thousands of pounds.
He met the 32-year-old on holiday in Thailand three years ago and she had promised to move to England to be with him.
That prospect was heaven-sent to a man known to friends as 'the dog' because of the way he ogled women.
Yet a few weeks ago she broke the news that she was seeing someone else, sending him the simple message: 'It's over.'
Bird was ribbed by fellow taxi drivers over the shattering of his dream. He had already fallen out with them in a dispute over the poaching of business.
The loss of the money he had sent her just before she called it off would also have increased his financial difficulties.
Yesterday friends told how Bird - single since separating from the mother of his two sons in 1994 - had become fixated on 'Hon' while holidaying with a group of friends in Pattaya in 2007.
During the five-week trip he frequently ogled pole dancers at the Spicy Girls A Go-Go venue or drank at the Kennel bar.
Among those travelling with him was one of the taxi drivers he gunned down, Terry Kennedy, who survived but is due to have his maimed right hand amputated today.
'He chatted to girls in the bars, bought them drinks, took a couple back to the hotel - nothing outrageous or out of the ordinary,' he said from his hospital bed.
'None of the other lads minded, a couple of us have partners and have children so we left him to it most nights, but his behaviour certainly didn't offend me in any way.'
Bird's favourite was 'Hon' - a name thought to be false - and after spending the day on diving trips he would try to win her affections with drinks and gifts.
'Hon looked about 19 but I think she was about 30 at the time,' said Mr Kennedy. 'I knew Derrick liked the lass so I told him to go for it, he had nothing to lose.'
His success with the pretty young Thai girl was in stark contrast to his lack of luck back home in Cumbria, according to friends.
Pub landlord Bob Cullen, who accompanied Bird on a diving trip to the Red Sea, said he had a reputation as a 'lech' with women.
'He used to just stare at them,' he said. 'We used to take the ****, but it wasn't pleasant.
'His nickname among the lads was "the dog". He didn't have a partner because of his drinking. He used to go to Thailand for the women.'
After returning from Thailand to his cramped terraced home in the hamlet of Rowrah, Bird bombarded 'Hon' with letters, emails and text messages.
Last year he flew back out in a bid to see her - only to be deported back to Britain after a drink-fuelled outburst in a stopover in Qatar.
Undeterred he kept sending hundreds of pounds at a time saved from his taxi- driving earnings, another friend said.
'But just a few weeks ago he sent her £1,000, which was a hell of a lot of money for a taxi driver, and then heard nothing from her for days,' said the friend. 'Finally, the woman texted him and told him never to contact her again and she was seeing someone else.
'She had no interest in him whatsoever, he felt like such a mug.
'Derrick said he'd been made a fool out of, he couldn't believe it.
'He couldn't believe he'd been so stupid.
'He went downhill from there, but no one in the world would ever suspected what he would go and do.'
Fellow cabbie Ian Hewer told of the ribbing that followed from other drivers: 'They always like to take the mickey out of him - he was easy to wind up.'
Consumed with paranoia and jealousy, having shot his twin David and solicitor Kevin Commons, Bird murdered fellow cabbie Darren Rewcastle.
He wrongly suspected the 43-year-old of having an affair with Linda Mills, mother of his two children.
He blasted two other drivers at the Whitehaven rank before setting off on his rampage, stopping to shoot Mr Kennedy after their cabs came side by side.
The 52-year-old told how his friend grinned before firing his shotgun into his cab, leaving his face scarred and shattering his hand.
'To think that I classed Derrick as a mate and then go and do this to me and all those other people is beyond words,' the father-of-one said.
0 comments:
Post a Comment