Cumbria gunman Bird ‘was obsessed with a Thai prostitute less than half his age’

LONDON - The British gunman, who shot 12 people dead and wounded 11 before killing himself, is said to have had a secret violent obsession with a Thai prostitute less than half his age.

Deceased cabbie Derrick Bird, 52, who was an ex-nuke plant worker, looked every inch the respectable father, and nobody knew that he was secretly lavishing thousands on the 22-year-old he fell for on holiday.

He is said to have flipped over money worries, which were fuelled by the cost of his lust for the pretty hooker.

The last straw for the tax-dodging taxi driver was a massive bill from the Inland Revenue - and the fear of a prison sentence.

“He was worried sick that he was going to jail,” the Sun quoted his pal Mark Cooper, 45, as saying.

Bird is said to have killed the people he held grudges against, and that he had headed for the taxi rank where he worked in the seaside town of Whitehaven, to blast fellow cabbies for making fun of his love for the hooker.

Two had regularly joined him on twice-a-year trips to Thailand’s fleshpots. The group was nicknamed The Bad Boys, and Bird would pick up young girls to bed for around a tenner.

Chris Bulmer, 45, who owned one of the trio’s favourite haunts at Pattaya Beach, ‘Spicy Girls A Go-Go’, revealed Bird became besotted with one of the girls, and would become furious if he was unable to bed her.

The girl became so terrified of him that she quit and fled.

“He loved the women. He slept with a few of my girls upstairs and soon got a taste for it,” Bulmer, who now works in a New York factory, said.

“He came in with a pal seven years ago and came back regularly until 2005. But in the end he would only want to see one young lady in particular. She was about 22 and pretty. He became obsessed.

“He loved her and whenever he came back he would immediately find her, compensate the bar and take her away. She was his. And that was how he saw it.

“We heard he was sending things to her from the UK. It was something I always warned my customers about. These are working girls and they are not interested in relationships.

“He would get very angry if he couldn’t see his girl. He could be so quiet and mild mannered - then just flip.

“I knew a fair bit about him and when I heard a cabbie had gone berserk with a gun in Cumbria I stared at the telly. His picture came up and I recognised him instantly. I felt sick,” Bulmer stated.

He told how Bird not only sent the young hooker a fortune from Britain, but bombarded her with messages promising to return to Thailand so they could be together.

She refused to reply - and ended up so shaken she left the area.

“It sends a chill down my spine thinking about what he has done. I know the girls will all be talking about it too - the scary Englishman who killed a dozen people,” Bulmer, a dad of one, added. (ANI)