Dale Cregan

Case details

Dale Christopher Cregan (born 6 June 1983) was convicted in the United Kingdom of four counts of homicide and three separate counts of attempted murder. He was sentenced to life imprisonment with a whole life order on 13 June 2013.

Timeline

• 25 May 2012 — Dale Cregan shot and killed Mark Short, 23, in the Cotton Tree pub in Droylsden; he tried to kill three other men.
• 10 August 2012 — Cregan killed David Short, 46, at David’s house in Clayton by shooting him and throwing a hand grenade at him.
• 18 September 2012 — Cregan made a hoax emergency call to police; Nicola Hughes, 23, and Fiona Bone, 32, were mobilised to Hattersley, where he shot them and threw an M75 hand grenade; both constables were hit by at least eight bullets as he fired 32 shots in 31 seconds.
• 4 February 2013 — Cregan’s trial began at Preston Crown Court; he was detained at Manchester Prison.
• 13 June 2013 — Cregan was sentenced to life imprisonment with a whole life order.
• August 2013 — It was reported that Cregan was on hunger strike at Full Sutton.
• September 2013 — Cregan was moved to Ashworth Hospital.

Background

Dale Christopher Cregan was born at Tameside General Hospital in Greater Manchester and grew up in a two-up two-down terraced house in Droylsden. He had an older brother and a younger sister and he had a son.

Cregan attended Littlemoss High School in Droylsden. He began dealing cannabis soon after leaving school. He became a cocaine dealer in his early twenties.

He claimed to have lost his left eye during a fight in Thailand. Greater Manchester Police believed his eye was forcefully and intentionally removed by fellow gangsters. A police source said there was no marking or scar tissue around Cregan’s eye socket, suggesting instead that it was “plucked” out with a knife.

At 24, Cregan became a father with his partner, Georgia Merriman, from Crumpsall, Manchester. Georgia Merriman and their baby son were living in a three-bed semi in a quiet cul-de-sac in Droylsden, half a mile from David Short’s home. His father left the family and eventually married a former policewoman with Greater Manchester Police.

The offence

Cotton Tree pub — Mark Short (and attempted murders of three other men)

On 25 May 2012, Cregan shot dead Mark Short, 23, in the Cotton Tree pub in Droylsden. In the same incident, he tried to kill three other men. Cregan stepped into The Cotton Tree pub in Droylsden while wearing a balaclava.

The offence

David Short — shooting and hand grenade

On 10 August, Cregan killed Mark’s father David Short, 46, at David’s house in Clayton by shooting him and throwing a hand grenade at him. After Cregan targeted David Short outside his home in Clayton, he chased him into his house and gunned him down at close range before throwing a grenade at his dying body. A second grenade was thrown at another house in nearby Luke Road, Droylsden, 10 minutes later, although no-one was hurt.

The offence

Hattersley — hoax emergency call, shooting of two police officers, grenade attack

On 18 September 2012, Cregan made a hoax emergency call to the police. Nicola Hughes, 23, and Fiona Bone, 32, constables serving with Greater Manchester Police, were mobilised to Cregan’s call in Hattersley. When they arrived, Cregan shot them and threw an M75 hand grenade at them.

Both officers were hit by at least eight bullets as Cregan fired 32 shots in 31 seconds. Cregan later handed himself in at a police station, admitting to killing Hughes and Bone. He left a grenade where the officers lay, described as his “calling card”.

Cregan’s final comment to the call handler, as officers were told they were on the way, was: “I’ll be waiting.”

PC Hughes was hit eight times, including three bullets to the head as she lay on the ground. PC Bone was hit up to eight times after she managed to draw and fire her Taser at Cregan. After the shooting, he opened the front door as the officers walked up the front garden path and shot them in the chest with a Glock handgun.

After handing himself in, he told an officer: “I dropped the gun at the scene and I’ve murdered two police officers. You were hounding my family, so I took it out on yous.”

Investigation and intelligence

Greater Manchester Police issued David Short with three “threat to life” warnings, believing his life could be in danger. The force issued 130 such warnings in 2012 and 130 in 2011.

Greater Manchester Police believed Cregan could be linked to the removal of his left eye by fellow gangsters, describing intentional force behind the injury.

Arrest and surrender

Cregan went on the run and became one of the most wanted fugitives in the country. Wilkinson gave himself up to police first. After murdering the two police officers, having lured them to the scene with a false report of a burglary, Cregan finally handed himself in at a nearby police station.

Trial

Court and security arrangements

Cregan was detained at Manchester Prison while his trial proceeded. The trial was held at Preston Crown Court, where scaffolding was erected to accommodate armed officers. Police snipers watched over the building from nearby offices.

The daily convoy carrying Cregan between Manchester and Preston included two prison vans, police cars, motorcycle outriders and a helicopter. In total, 120 Lancashire Constabulary officers were deployed daily. The total cost of the trial was in excess of £5 million.

All Category A inmates transported to court underwent a strip search. In Cregan’s case, this included a search “behind his eye socket”. It was described as an extra check that was time-consuming and said to have annoyed him.

Cregan was subjected to twice-daily checks behind his false eye as part of the intensive security operation surrounding his trial. A source at HMP Manchester said:

“Every time he comes in and every time he goes out of the building he must be searched and checked – including behind his eye.
“Because he is a category A prisoner, each time he leaves these walls he is strip-searched and he must take his eye out so we can look behind it for drugs, or some sort of weapon, or anything he shouldn’t have.
“And every time he comes back from court he gets strip-searched again – and it p***** him off.”

Trial — charges and verdicts

Cregan was convicted of all four murders and of three attempted murders in the Mark Short incident. During the trial, which began on 4 February 2013, it was described that Cregan admitted at various stages the four murders and the attempted murders of three others, along with a count of causing an explosion with a hand grenade. Nine others faced trial alongside him on various charges linked to the deaths of the Shorts; four were cleared.

Sentencing

Cregan was sentenced to life imprisonment with a whole life order on 13 June 2013.

He was sentenced to whole-life terms for the four murders with no prospect of release. Mr Justice Holroyde said he had no doubt that Cregan could see the policewomen approaching the house and that they were unarmed. Mr Justice Holroyde told Cregan:

“You acted with premeditated savagery … you drew those two officers into a calculated trip for the sole purpose of murdering them in cold blood.”

He was described as “acting with pre-meditated savagery” in the “quite appalling” murders, and he was found to have “premeditated savagery” in luring PCs Nicola Hughes, 23, and Fiona Bone, 32, to their deaths in a gun and grenade attack.

Appeals

No appeals were mentioned.

Outcome

Cregan received a whole life order following conviction for four murders and three attempted murders, and he was sentenced to life imprisonment with a whole life order on 13 June 2013.

Aftermath

Hunger strike and hospital move

In August 2013, it was reported that Cregan was on hunger strike at Full Sutton. He was moved to Ashworth Hospital in September 2013.

Statements by public officials and commentators

Sir Peter Fahy, chief constable of Greater Manchester, described Cregan and his gang as a “scourge on society”. Greater Manchester’s police and crime commissioner Tony Lloyd called them “animals”. Ian Hanson, chairman of Greater Manchester Police Federation, said Cregan was an “abomination upon our society”.

Ian Hanson said:

“I have no problem whatso­ever with the thought of him staring through one eye at a locked cell door wondering what kind of life he is missing,”

Home Secretary Theresa May said:

“Dale Cregan is a despicable individual and I am pleased he has been sentenced to spend the rest of his life behind bars.
“The shootings of Pcs Fiona Bone and Nicola Hughes were a terrible reminder of the risks police officers face every day.”

Victim family statements

Bryn Hughes, father of PC Hughes, said:

“She was brutally and callously murdered in the most despicable and cowardly way. “We can only imagine what thoughts and feelings she experienced in those few seconds it took for this person to pull the trigger and for Nicola to draw her last breath. “Our lives have been shattered beyond belief and will never be the same again. “To have a child taken from you in such a cruel and meaningless way is without doubt the worst thing any parent can wish to imagine.”

Paul Bone said of his daughter:

“My family is still coming to terms with our loss and not a day goes by without thinking of Fiona. “I am told that it gets easier in time but for the moment every Tuesday lunchtime is difficult, for that was when our lives changed forever.”

Prison van accident and legal claims

Prison sources have said whiplash claims were to be made by killers in the trial over a prison van accident as they were ferried to court. Murderer Damian Gorman was among those in line for cash if he was successful in personal injury claims and “hurt feelings”.

Other details

Plea and admissions

It was stated that Cregan pleaded guilty part-way through a trial to killing father and son Mark and David Short in separate attacks before going on the run and murdering police officers Nicola Hughes and Fiona Bone.

During their conversations, Dr James Collins, a consultant forensic psychiatrist, said Cregan told him David Short was killed after making threats against his family. Cregan told Dr James Collins:

“After I killed Mark Short, he said he would rape my son, he said he would set him on fire.
“I couldn’t get him out of my head. I thought if I kill him, maybe I will get a rest.
“He threatened my whole family. He told me 'The gloves are off'. So I was always going to kill him.
“The night I shot David Short I had the best sleep of my life.”

The only explanation offered was: “You were hounding my family so I took it out on yous,” though it was also stated that Cregan later added he was “sorry about those two that have been killed, I wish it was men”.

Statements and profiling remarks during the trial

Consultant criminal psychologist Elie Godsi said Cregan displayed all the characteristics of a psychopath and may have killed the PCs because “he wanted to go out in some sort of distorted blaze of glory and gain notoriety for himself”. Elie Godsi said:

“In the criminal underworld there is not only people taken out because of turf wards and disputes... there's also a very strange moral code where people mustn't be offended, you must save face.
“Perhaps in some circles the murder of police has some sort of kudos attached to it.
“Grandiosity is central to the behaviour of psychopaths because usually their lives are quite pathetic, empty and meaningless... so they have to create a very distorted sense of their own self-worth.
“The other side of that is that other people are not important to them.”

An unnamed individual who asked to remain anonymous for fear of reprisals said Cregan made it obvious he was “ready and willing openly to use violence to get his own way” and that no-one had really thought he was capable of the four brutal murders he admitted carrying out last summer. The same individual said:

“ran things”
“walk around the community making people feel uncomfortable, staring at people”

The same individual said people were too intimidated to go to the police about his threats, stating:

“People don't want to get involved do they, and to be labelled a grass, I guess that's one thing.
“But also the repercussions. The police aren't there 24/7.
“Sometimes there's nothing the police can do... and they're not in the neighbourhood at 10 o'clock at night when they come and give you a knock on the door or are just generally intimidating you.
“It's uncomfortable, it's psychological. He was ruthless and people were scared of him and that's what he wanted. Basically the reputation he wanted was that he ran things in that area and by all accounts he did.
“He was in control of a lot of the drugs coming in and out of the area.”

The same individual also said:

“It's attractive because that's what we see on our televisions every day, that's what we measure success by... what car you drive and what clothes you're wearing.”

A criminal source described Cregan as a “Joey” — the hired muscle willing to do the dirty work. A detective put it in court as:

“You can give any muppet a gun.”

Family feud and warnings

It was stated that a feud between the Short family and the Atkinsons led to the killings. Leon Atkinson hit David Short in the face in 2001 for “looking at him”. The court heard about tension between the two east Manchester families. Atkinson testified:

“We had another fight after that"
“I had a fight with one of their nephews… two of their nephews. My brothers had fights with his cousins or nephews.”

The feud escalated in September 2003 when Atkinson’s father Francis was shot in the leg, his left knee cap “blown across” a pub. It was said David Short thought Atkinson’s “right hand man” Cregan was responsible for a serious attack on him when he was run off his bike and had his throat cut.

It was stated that an uneasy truce was called when Atkinson and David Short shook hands in Manchester’s Arndale Centre, in 2008. Atkinson said:

“We just said there was no use in fighting,”

During a drunken pub row in 2012, Theresa Atkinson, dubbed the “matriarch” of the family, threw a bottle at another member of the Short family, Raymond Young, who slapped her. Ms Atkinson warned him:

“I'm going to get my boys - you're all dead.”

Phone records showed she called her son Leon and another son hours later, and the following morning she spoke to her mother again before contacting Cregan.

Twelve days later, Short family and friends gathered at the Cotton Tree pub in Droylsden. Cregan, Luke Livesey and Damian Gorman — known as Scarface — pulled up in a car outside. A balaclava-clad gunman entered the pub, fatally shooting Mark Short and also hitting three other men.

David Short emerged from the toilets unscathed to see his son die in his arms.

It was also stated that Greater Manchester Police said they issued Mr Short three “threat to life” warnings and that Cregan decided to kill David Short to prevent retaliation attacks.

Sequence of police attendance and attempted burglary report

During the trial, it was stated Cregan lured the constables to the scene with a bogus 999 call to a house in Abbey Gardens, Hattersley. He had arrived there and shot them. It was also stated that he surrendered after murdering the police officers having lured them to the scene with a false report of a burglary.

Cregan’s lifestyle and possessions (as described)

Cregan was described as a “ruthless and intimidating lead player in the criminal underworld”. He was described as a villain and a heavy one for most of his 30 years, and it was stated that he had evaded the law and had never been behind bars as an adult.

He was described as spending his life on a mobile phone sometimes taking and making more than 200 calls a day, dealing drugs, lifting weights in the gym, and drinking in pubs fuelled by cocaine. He was described as carrying wads of cash and driving a Mercedes 4x4 ML.

It was stated he enjoyed holidays in Antigua, was “always” over in Thailand staying at a five star £105-a-night destination, the Peace Resort in Koh Samui, spent time on fishing trips to France and days away in Amsterdam.

It was stated that after returning from Tenerife with his sister, Cregan bought guns and had a collection of around ten weapons, including machine guns. It was also stated he had fist fights with the nephews of David Short and developed a “bad fetish” for knives. It was stated he made £20,000 a week dealing cocaine by the age of 22.

He was described as ordering his captive to cut his hair and beard, taking a bath, and putting on new clothes before court. It was also stated that during his final night of freedom he used a laptop to look himself up on the news, drank beer, smoked cigars, and tried to get his hands on cocaine. While on the run, he boasted that the £50,000 reward for his capture was “rare – like me”.

Detention and transport details

It was stated that the daily convoy transporting Cregan included prison vans, police cars, motorcycle outriders and a helicopter, with Lancashire Constabulary officers deployed daily, and that the trial involved extensive armed security and snipers watching from nearby offices.

Court and courtroom proceedings

It was stated that Cregan smiled and shook hands with other defendants after the verdicts were returned. Mr Justice Holroyde criticised Cregan and his co-accused for not showing any remorse or compassion for victims.

Facts attributed to other people’s perspectives

An unnamed source said there was no marking or scar tissue around Cregan’s eye socket, suggesting instead it had been “plucked” out with a knife. Another unnamed “police source” said this, and it was also stated that Cregan had been subjected to intensive security checks that included his left eye socket.