Killer’s twin could be key to massacre

DERRICK BIRD’S first target, his twin, David, could hold a key to the Cumbria massacre.

While David appeared prosperous and happily married, Derrick lived in a shabby terrace and had money woes.

The family denied a feud between the pair, but speculation persisted that Derrick may have been spurred on by a wrangle over their inheritance.

And Derrick’s money troubles became the focus of the police investigation after it emerged that he feared being jailed for tax evasion.

As police tried to unravel why Derrick would have picked David as his first victim, a picture emerged of two brothers poles apart. The 52-year-old twins lived within a few miles of each other in the area where they were brought up, but their homes were quite different.

David, who had been given £25,000 (€30,000) by their father before he died more than a decade ago, owned a large farmhouse in Lamplugh and had sold part of his land for a development of four detached homes.

The twins’ other brother Brian also occupied a large, attractive period house in Lamplugh.

Derrick, meanwhile, lived in a modest, pebbledash terraced house in Rowrah and is understood to have looked after their elderly mother, Mary, as she became more infirm.

This difference in circumstances between the brothers may well have left Derrick resentful.

While David was given £25,000 by their father, Joe, which was to be deducted from his share of inheritance, neither Derrick nor Brian received anything as his estate passed to their mother who survived him.

And as Mrs Bird became increasingly frail, the question of whether the deduction would be transferred to her will in the event of her death may have become an issue.

Although both twins had children, David’s happy family life contrasted sharply with divorced Derrick’s singleton existence.

Even in external appearance, the twins were hardly similar.

With finer features, David looked slimmer and healthier, while stout Derrick had a round and heavy face.

A kind and cheerful character, David would “do anything for anybody”, a neighbour said. His daughters described him as “the nicest man you could ever meet”.

He is believed to have worked as an excavator operator and was well known in the local community.

In his family’s opinion, David’s downfall was his desire to help his troubled brother.

His daughters, Rachel, 28, Tracey, 26, and Katie, 19, said their father was a “loving character” and a doting father and grandfather.

Derrick had two grown-up sons and had just become a grandfather. But he was, it seemed, a quieter person.

Neighbours initially spoke of him as a “normal bloke”, but a picture has emerged of a long-standing gun owner with a criminal conviction. Dismissed from his job as a joiner at the Sellafield nuclear plant in 1990 after being convicted of stealing from his employer, he was spared jail, receiving a 12-month suspended sentence.

He went on to become a taxi driver and pub regular with a fondness for scuba-diving holidays in Thailand.

According to his friend, fellow taxi driver Mark Cooper, he was embroiled in a major tax investigation into an undeclared £60,000, faced serious financial difficulties and was scared by the prospect of prison. Added to this, he had been left nervous and anxious after an attack by one of his taxi passengers three years ago.

But for all their differences, the fact that the two men were twins makes it even more surprising that one turned on the other, experts said.

Dr Alexander Weiss, from the University of Edinburgh’s psychology department, who has studied twins, said: “Twins are closer to each other in general. They share genes so there would be some pressure for them to be decent to each other.

“Work has been done showing that, when one twin dies, the other would find the grieving considerably harder than in a non-twin relationship. So it’s probably less likely that something like (the events in Cumbria) would happen. It makes it even more unusual.”

As twins, the brothers would be more likely to share certain traits, he added. “If one twin is depressed, the other is more likely to be depressed. If one commits suicide, the other is more likely to do so.”

The fact of their closeness, as well as their shared genes, is likely to be a cause for this, he added.