Gangster-turned-author Dave Courtney found with gunshot wound, says coroner

London gangster-turned-author Dave Courtney was found with a gunshot wound by a friend in his south-east London home, a coroner’s court has heard.

Courtney, who claimed to be an associate of 1960s gangland criminals the Kray twins, swapped an earlier life of crime for writing books in his later years.

The 64-year-old was discovered dead at his home on Chestnut Rise, Plumstead, on October 22, and a preliminary post-mortem found the cause of death to be “a gunshot wound to the head”, coroner Dr Julian Morris told Southwark Coroner’s Court on Wednesday.

Detective Sergeant James Robinson, attached to Lewisham Police Station, told the court that two of Mr Courtney’s friends were at the address at the discovery of his death.

Both told the police that they had gone with Mr Courtney to watch Charlton Athletic win 4-0 against Reading the day before.

Det Sgt Robinson said: “Both stated… David seemed quite happy and chirpy. They went to the pub on the way home.

“They spent the evening at Chestnut Rise as they quite often did talking, drinking. They left and went to bed at some point in the evening, approximately 10pm, and they both saw Dave go into his bedroom.”

One of the two friends told police he woke at about 3.30am to use the bathroom and heard Mr Courtney on the phone but “thought nothing of it”, the court heard.

Det Sgt Robinson said Mr Courtney apparently “would quite often spend a lot of the night on the phone to various people”.

The next morning the same friend went into Mr Courtney’s bedroom and “found him slumped on the bed, apparently dead”.

The court heard they called various family members to let them have “some last few minutes” with Mr Courtney and then called police.

Det Sgt Robinson said that attending police initially thought the circumstances were “not suspicious but unexplained” and required investigation, with particular concern over recovering the “spent shell casing” although they had already recovered the firearm.

Mr Courtney’s property was searched and police found the casing in Mr Courtney’s bedroom along with a number of other firearms “in various states”.

“One of his many professions was to make films, including gangster movies, and most of the weapons in the property were attributed to that,” Det Sgt Robinson said.

Police obtained Mr Courtney’s phone and found eight videos created in the early hours of October 22 – “each video appearing to say goodbye to a different family member”.

The court was also told about a video that Mr Courtney made in July which seemed to refer to a suicide attempt and in which he spoke about a recent cancer diagnosis and the pain he suffered from arthritis.

The coroner said the circumstances of Mr Courtney’s death reached the threshold to open an inquest, which will be fixed at a later date once police have completed their investigations.

Mr Courtney’s family paid tribute to his “incredible, colourful, rock ‘n’ roll life” after news of his death.

They posted a statement on X that said: “On October 22 2023, Dave made the decision to stop the ride.

“He had lived an incredible, colourful, rock ‘n’ roll life in which he touched the hearts of so many.

“The physical pain of living the lifestyle he chose, especially due to the pain of both cancer and arthritis in his later years, became too much.”

Courtney was rumoured to be the inspiration behind Vinnie Jones’s character in Guy Ritchie’s gangster film Lock, Stock, And Two Smoking Barrels.

After turning to writing, he published six books, and starred in a film called Hell To Pay.