Derrick Bird plotted Cumbria massacre for 5 years

Bird, a taxi driver, boasted to a prostitute he spent the night with in 2005 that one day he would kill everyone who had ever crossed him.

He also signalled his murderous intent to two friends on a diving holiday last year, warning how he would “get a gun and kill them all” to settle his grudges back home in Cumbria.

Yesterday prostitute Karen Lewis, 47, told how the gun fanatic had left her “fearing for her life” following their encounter.

She said: “He spoke of hating his brother, of being so much in debt he couldn’t crawl out of it. He said he hated his mother. He didn’t like the people where he lived. He said when he shoots them he’d know which ones to do because there were people in the village that he absolutely couldn’t stand.”

Bird told her how he regularly visited prostitutes after picking her up for £30 in Coventry’s red light district in October 2005.

She was stunned when she saw his face on TV after the shootings last week and immediately recalled their disturbing meeting.

She said: “I don’t think he was normal in the head. There was genuinely something wrong with him. He was a desperate man.

“I did think about talking to the police but I thought he did not mean it.

Ms Lewis added: “I’ve had weird stuff from all kinds of freaks but I didn’t feel safe in his car.

“Over the months and then years I’d put him to the back of my mind. But as soon as I heard the news of the shootings he came straight back.

“When I saw his face my blood ran cold. I thought ‘Oh my God, he’s gone and done it’.”

Bird repeated his threats to two close friends during a diving holiday in Croatia last September.

Fellow diver Bob Cullen said: “When he was drunk he used to get moody and broody. There was a dark side to him.

“When we were in Croatia he told us ‘One of these days I’m going to get a gun and shoot them all’. Of course we didn’t believe him. We told him not to be so stupid.”

In another twist it was claimed Bird, 52, had recently been dumped by his 32-year-old Thai lover Hon, whom he had been sending cash to after she promised to come to England to live with him.

He had met her on a five-week trip to the resort of Pattaya in 2007 and is believed to have deposited £1,000 in a Thai bank account for her. It is thought a simmering grudge against his more successful twin brother David over money left by their late father Joe sparked the mass killings in Cumbria last Wednesday.

Joe Bird gave David £25,000 before he died in October 1998 at the age of 82.

The money was supposed to be deducted from David’s share of their mother’s inheritance. However, it is thought Bird was convinced David and solicitor Kevin Commons, 60, were colluding to prevent this happening.

Police also confirmed the taxman was investigating Bird and friends have spoken about a mystery £60,000 in his bank account, which it is believed he had avoided paying tax on.

The night before he went on his shooting rampage Bird visited his best friend and neighbour Neil Jacques where he spent hours pouring out his anger towards his brother and Mr Commons.

The pair then watched violent action film On Deadly Ground starring Steven Seagal, which features mass killings. Mr Jacques said: “He came to see me at my house because he had something on his mind – that he was going to go to jail over tax evasion. The last thing he said to me was: “Do you think I’m paranoid?”

After blasting his brother David to death at his home, Bird killed Mr Commons and then pumped bullets at his fellow cabbies in Whitehaven, claiming the life of Darren Rewcastle, 43, who he blamed for taking business away from him.

Some of his victims were targets of long-held grudges, others just random passers-by.

The killings only ended when Bird took his own life in remote woodland after abandoning his car.

The other victims shot dead by Bird were Kenneth Fishburn, 71, Susan Hughes, 57, James Jackson, 67, Jennifer Jackson, 68, Isaac Dixon, 65, Michael Pike, 64, Jane Robinson, 66, Jamie Clark, 23, and Garry Purdham, 31.