Dale Cregan sentenced for PC murders

The man who killed two Greater Manchester Police (GMP) officers in a gun and grenade attack last year has been handed a whole life term.

Dale Cregan, 30, who admitted killing PCs Fiona Bone and Nicola Hughes after luring them out to a suspected burglary call in Mottram, Tameside last September, was also today found not guilty over a separate charge of attempted murder, having been cleared by the jury at Preston Crown Court over an attack on Sharon Hark.

Mr Cregan had previously pleaded guilty to the murders of father and son David and Mark Short, as well as three other charges of attempted murder.

Nine other men faced trial alongside Mr Cregan.

Luke Livesey, 28, and Damian Gorman, 38, were convicted over the murder of Mark Short and the attempted murder of three others in an attack on a pub in Droylesden.

Jermaine Ward, 24, was found guilty of murder for his part in the death of David Short, but cleared on two other charges of attempted murder and causing an explosion, while 32-year-old Mohammed Imran Ali was found guilty of assisting an offender.

Anthony Wilkinson, 34, who had admitted involvement in the murder of David Short, was found guilty of possessing a gun with intent to endanger life but not guilty of the attempted murder of Ms Hark.

Leon Atkinson, 35, Ryan Hadfield, 29, 33-year-old Matthew James and 37-year-old Francis Dixon were found not guilty of all charges they faced.

Following the verdicts, Tony Lloyd, police and crime commissioner for Greater Manchester, paid tribute to PCs Bone and Hughes.

“Fiona and Nicola’s deaths starkly demonstrate the risks that the brave men and women of Greater Manchester Police take each day to keep us safe,” he said.

“On behalf of everyone in Greater Manchester, I would like to pay tribute to their sacrifice and bravery. Fiona and Nicola represented the very best in policing and they will never be forgotten.”

He added: “This case cast a long, dark shadow across Greater Manchester, but the fact that these men have been convicted should send out a clear message of hope that people who think they are ‘hard men’ will be hunted down and brought to book.”

Sir Peter Fahy, chief constable of GMP, also expressed satisfaction that the perpetrators were found guilty, claiming it sent a message to any other would-be gangster that they would be caught, and praised the way policing was carried out in the UK.

He said: “After our two officers, Nicola and Fiona, were murdered in cold blood whilst on duty, I personally reflected for a long time afterwards as to whether anything more could have been done to prevent their deaths, but quickly came to realise that in a society where we police by consent, you cannot police such evil.

“The British public prize the fact that their police force is routinely unarmed and saw this attack as an attack on all of us. I cannot thank the public enough for the support they have, and still continue, to show us.”

Ian Hanson, chair of Greater Manchester Police Federation, said: “Police officers are often seen commenting in the media at the conclusion of trials relating to terrible acts of evil and we do so with a certain measured degree of emotion; today I am not going to allow myself that luxury – I am going to say precisely what I think and what I firmly believe most other decent people think.

“Dale Cregan is an abhorration upon society and has forfeited the right to walk the streets with other human beings for the rest of his life. 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 and after he has stopped being a drain on society he can rot in hell – if anybody thinks that`s harsh then I am afraid they are just going to live with it.”