Gary Salmon was once one of the most wanted felons in Britain. With Michael O'Brien, he murdered Marvyn Bradshaw, 22, of Top Valley, after he was shot outside Bulwell's Sporting Chance pub in August 2003.
Salmon went on the run for nearly three years and despite a £10,000 reward, £15,000 poster campaign and a high-profile appeal on Crimewatch UK, Salmon evaded police. That was until they caught up with him in March 2006 in Birmingham after a tip-off and he was arrested at gun-point by armed cops.
Salmon was charged with murdering Mr Bradshaw, possessing a firearm with intent to endanger life (used by O’Brien to kill Mr Bradshaw) and making threats to kill door staff at Obsessions nightclub, Thurland Street, Nottingham, on August 29, 2003, and was convicted of all three - and the agonsing wait for justice was finally over for Mr Bradshaw's family and friends.
Read more: Nottingham murderer Michael O'Brien speaks from jail as he admits: 'I hurt a lot of people'
Nottinghamshire Live has learned Salmon currently remains in custody, after he received life, set at a minimum of 18 years before parole is considered. Salmon's case has been referred to the Parole Board and he had an oral hearing last year.
A spokeswoman for the Parole Board said: "He had a hearing in March last year, and there was a recommendation made to the Secretary of State for a transfer to open conditions".
The development comes after his partner in crime, O’Brien, aged 23 at the time of the offence, of Wendover Drive, Aspley, will make his bid for freedom this year, after his case was referred to the Parole Board. His 18-year tariff expires this year - but his case has not been put through in its first stages on paper yet.
The Parole Board told Nottinghamshire Live, at that first stage, a case can be concluded or directed to an oral hearing, and it can take a while to work through the system. If O'Brien were given Parole, it would be his first taste of freedom in nearly two decades.
At New Year, O'Brien spoke on reformed ex-career criminal Marvin Herbert's YouTube channel, and revealed how, "I ****** up, and "I ****** up too many other peoples' lives".
O'Brien was jailed for at least 24 years in 2004 for Mr Bradshaw’s murder - but this was cut to 18 years by the Appeal Court. It was O’Brien who fired the fatal shot into a car as Mr Bradshaw drove it out of the pub car park.
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When Salmon was later sentenced, Judge Michael Stokes, KC, now retired, told Salmon: “Marvyn Bradshaw was a totally innocent man. He had done nothing wrong at all and he was shot in the most cold-blooded manner. I can well understand the absolute devastation his family must feel as a result of this appalling crime.
“It may well be O’Brien is an exceptionally dangerous young man, but the fact remains, Gary Salmon, I have no doubt whatsoever, that this would not have happened if you hadn’t provided him with the gun and ammunition.” Due to the decision at the Court of Appeal to reduce O’Brien’s minimum term from 24 years to 18 years, the judge said he felt he could only impose the same tariff for Salmon.
The judge told Salmon, then 34, he was older than O'Brien and should have acted as a “restraining influence” rather than providing him with the gun. Marvyn’s family said at the time their son could now rest in peace after seeing Salmon convicted of his murder.
They said: “Michael O’Brien and Gary Salmon destroyed our lives when they murdered Marvyn. He was a young man with his whole life ahead of him but he died in the most horrific way imaginable.
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“Marvyn was an innocent man. He was not involved in crime and had never been in trouble with the police. As a family, we have had to endure three trials in which the details of Marvyn’s horrific murder have been told time and time again.”
O’Brien had sought revenge after he was assaulted outside the Sporting Chance pub in Bulwell on September 29, 2003, and suffered a cut to his head. He returned to Salmon’s home in Brooklyn Road, Bulwell, and together the men changed into dark clothing and balaclavas.
Two teenage girls, who had met the pair that night in Nottingham, said they saw O’Brien pull the trigger of a pump-action shotgun in Salmon’s house. The weapon was not loaded at the time but both were scared and realised they were out of their depth.
Police traced them and asked them to give evidence. Their frank testimonies gave police an insight into crucial events leading up to the murder. And the information put Salmon and O’Brien with the gun, accounted for the pair’s movements at the time of the shooting and how O’Brien had disposed of the weapon down an alleyway.
Their evidence, which the judge had commended, gave prosecutors a cast iron case against both men. Police pieced together the rest of the case from other witnesses. O’Brien had fired the shot into Mr Bradshaw’s car as he left the Sporting Chance car park with friends.
The bullet was intended for the man who had earlier assaulted him. Instead, the shot caught Mr Bradshaw, 22, of Top Valley, in the back of the head. He died later in hospital. O'Brien and Salmon had previously committed a robbery together and, in 2001, Salmon was jailed for two years for beating up a man who owed O’Brien money for drugs.
The self-styled ‘enforcer‘ had pleaded guilty to causing actual bodily harm. The judge in that case ordered charges of kidnap and robbery to lie on file. O’Brien had denied he knew the gun used at the Sporting Chance had been loaded.
Salmon had told his trial: “He [O’Brien] said he wanted to go the pub to confront the person that had hit him over the head with the ashtray. He produced a shotgun that I had never seen before out of the bags. He put it to one of the girls and pulled the trigger three times.
"It just clicked. I thought he was just going to threaten the guy - just scare him or something.” Salmon was found guilty by unanimous verdict, with little reaction from him or supporters in the public gallery. Only one woman cried — Mr Bradshaw’s mother — silent tears that her nightmare was over. She declined to comment at the outcome of the case.
But both one senior officer and prosecutor Peter Joyce, KC, paid tribute to her calm and dignity.
* The night O'Brien shot Mr Bradshaw the bullet was meant for Jamie Gunn, the nephew of Bestwood crime lord Colin Gunn, after an argument earlier that night outside the Sporting Chance pub, Bulwell, where there had been a lock-in.
Marvyn was driving best friend Jamie and friends away from the pub when Marvyn was shot in the back of his head and died later that day. Jamie contracted pneumonia and died.
Colin Gunn had decided on the ultimate revenge to get to O'Brien. With his associates, he tracked O'Brien's mum and step-dad, originally from Carlton, to their tiny bungalow in Trusthorpe. On August 8, 2004, the innocent couple were ruthlessly executed by two gunmen. They have never been traced.
Mobile phone evidence put Gunn and his associates, Michael McNee and John Russell, near the Stirlands' home in the days before the murders. All three were convicted of conspiring to murder them.
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