A man who made allegations of police corruption, predicted his own death in a tape recording he left with his solicitor, an inquest has heard.

Jeremy Earls, 34, was found with a single gun wound to his head in Kelby, Lincolnshire, on 8 August, 2001, only days after the death of Andrew Walker, 26, and his half-brother Alex Woodcraft, 17, in nearby Lincoln.

Mr Earls made the tape in March 2001 and left it with his solicitor Andrew Jay from Gainsborough, Lincolnshire, asking him to hand it to the coroner in the event of his death.

In the tape, which was played to the inquest at Lincoln Castle, Mr Earls claimed there was a conspiracy between several Lincolnshire Police officers, a Nottingham businessman Chris Bailey and another man Darren Maul.

Jeremy Earls left a tape for his solicitor

Mr Earls said: "I believe Maul was a high level informer and possibly Bailey.

"I believe the police turn a blind eye to them, manipulating people into murdering other people and drug dealings and things like that."

Mr Earls said he had brought his allegations to the attention of Lincolnshire Police, Devon and Cornwall Police, MI5, the Guardian newspaper and civil rights group Liberty.

Mr Earls went on to say: "I believe I am in extreme harm's way.

"I think they've been waiting for an arrest on me, or for me to commit a crime in this period which I haven't.

"I've had several people I believe were police informers trying to coerce me into selling drugs, committing armed robbery or doing various crimes which I declined."

'Paranoid psychosis'

Earls also claimed his former girlfriend Samantha Frankman was colluding with Mr Bailey and the police and he claimed she had tried to poison him on two occasions with correcting fluid and house-cleaning fluid.

The inquest also heard from Dr Stephen Joseph, a consultant forensic psychiatrist, who had been commissioned by Lincolnshire Police to assess Mr Earls' mental state based on the case papers.

It's possible that he has deliberately taken steps to give the impression that he has been murdered

Dr Stephen Joseph, psychiatrist

Dr Joseph never met Mr Earls.

But he said: "Mr Earls' propensity to use violence against others, his interest in guns, his paranoid psychosis and suicidal ideation (thoughts) are all features which support the hypothesis that Mr Earls was responsible for the deaths of Andrew Walker and Alex Woodcraft following which he killed himself.

He said Mr Earls was described by several people as "devious, controlling and manipulative".

He said: "It's possible that he has deliberately taken steps to give the impression that he has been murdered in the hope that others might be blamed for his death."

Questioned by Steven Gosnell, counsel for Lincolnshire Police, he accepted that it would have been impossible to predict the chain of events.

Dr Joseph said: "There was no evidence he would eventually take the law into his own hands or become suicidal.

"Why he chose those two individuals perhaps we will never know."

The inquest continues.