Police called out before shooting

Joan and John Stirland were shot at their seaside bungalow

A jury has heard a couple were shot dead at their Lincolnshire home just 30 minutes after reporting a prowler to the police.

Joan Stirland, 51, told an officer from Nottinghamshire police that a neighbour had seen a man jump over her fence on 8 August 2004.

The court was told she was later shot and killed along with her husband John Stirland, 55, at their Trusthorpe home.

Eight men deny conspiracy to murder at Birmingham Crown Court.

If the police had acted more quickly to the prowler report then this killing could have been prevented Timothy Spencer, QC, prosecutor

The jury heard the couple's bloodstained bodies were found seven hours after the prowler report when an officer went to check their home at Radio St Peters.

Timothy Spencer QC, prosecuting, said if the police had reacted more swiftly the couple would still be alive.

Mr Spencer said: "With all the benefit of hindsight it could be said that if the police had acted more quickly to the prowler report then this killing could have been prevented.

"But they didn't. It's as simple as that."

Phone records

The prosecution claim John Russell and Michael McNee were the gunmen who carried out the shooting.

Mr Spencer showed the jury mobile phone records which he said put the two "very close" to the Stirland's home in the hours leading up to the double murder.

He said the two men entered the couple's house dressed in dark blue boiler suits and shot them dead.

They escaped in a black Volkswagen Passat which was found burnt out in Crawcroft Lane later that afternoon.

'Sought to avenge'

Mr Spencer added: "There is compelling evidence that McNee and Russell were the gunmen.

"If they were not they were certainly in Trusthorpe at the time, if not as gunmen as on-the-spot lookouts."

Mr Stirland, 55, and his 51-year-old wife were killed following the conviction of Mrs Stirland's son Michael O'Brien for the murder of Marvyn Bradshaw in Nottingham in 2003.

A teenage friend of Mr Bradshaw's who witnessed the shooting suffered a subsequent decline in health and died of pneumonia, the court heard.

The eight defendants allegedly blamed O'Brien for both deaths and sought to avenge them by murdering his parents.

John Russell, 29, of Northcote Way, Nottingham; Michael McNee, 20, of no fixed address; Shane Bird, 38, of Carlton Hill, Nottingham; and Kevin Holm, 38, of Cliff Road, Carlton, Nottingham, all deny a charge of conspiring to murder Mr and Mrs Stirland.

Andrew McKinnon, 21, of no fixed address and Lanelle Douglas, 20, of no fixed address, also deny the same charge along with a 38-year-old man and a 40-year-old man who cannot be named for legal reasons.

The case continues.