One-eyed cop killer Cregan sentenced to die in jail

Blackleaf

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Oct 9, 2004
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One-eyed cop killer Dale Cregan - who is believed to have had his eye plucked out with a knife, leading to him wearing a false black onyx eye - has today been sentenced to die in prison for murdering four people, including two police officers.

The judge at Preston Crown Court told him he will never be released from prison and that he will spend the rest of his natural life behind bars after a jury found him guilty of the four murders.

Cregan, 29, killed PC Fiona Bone, 32, and PC Nicola Hughes, 23, on 18th September last year. The police officers had been responding to a 999 call in Mottram, near Manchester. It was Cregan who made the call to report a fictitious crime. It was a trap and he was waiting at a house armed with a glock pistol and a hand grenade.

After shooting the officers and tossing a grenade at their bodies, he handed himself in at Hyde Police Station.


Dangerous: Dale Cregan, surrounded by armed police, sketched as he appeared in court, will spend the rest of his life in prison. Since 1983 around 61 people have been given a whole life tariff, which replaces the death penalty. People on a whole life tariff include Moors Murderer Ian Brady and the Yorkshire Ripper.


Cold-blooded: Cregan decided in advance he would kill the police, and eventually took lives of PC Fiona Bone (left) and PC Nicola Hughes (right) after calling 999 claiming there was a burglary where he was hiding

At the time, Cregan was wanted in connection with two previous murders - those of 23-year-old Mark Short and his 46-year-old father David - and was the subject of an urgent manhunt. Towards the end of his trial Cregan admitted killing Mark Short, 23, in a shooting at the Cotton Tree pub in the Droylsden area of Manchester in May last year and his father, David Short, 46, in a gun and grenade attack at his home in the Clayton area of Manchester in August.

But after six days considering their verdicts after a 17-week trial, the jury of six men and five women agreed today he was not responsible for the attempted murder of Sharon Hark on the same day.


First crime scene: The first victim, Mark Short, was killed at the Cotton Tree Inn pub in Droylsden, Manchester, at just before midnight


Victims: Cregan first murdered Mark Short at a birthday party in May and then killed his father David Short (left) three months later

A well known local 'hard man' he spent his life on his mobile phone, sometimes taking and making more than 200 calls a day, dealing drugs, in between daily sessions in the gym lifting weights, followed by afternoon sessions drinking in pubs, fuelled by cocaine.

He carried wads of cash, drove a Mercedes Jeep ML and enjoyed jetting to the West Indies, the Far East and Europe - always flying business class - not bad for a man who gave his official occupation as a plasterer.

All a far cry from the endless terrace streets and corner pubs where he made his name in east Manchester and its outer suburbs in Tameside, stretching as far as the city's 1960s overspill new town of Hattersley - where he would shoot dead two policewomen.

Sentencing Cregan - described by Greater Manchester Police as a 'scourge on our society' - Mr Justice Holroyde said he had 'acted with pre-meditated savagery' in the 'quite appalling' murders.

'You, Cregan, drew those two officers into a calculated trap for the sole purpose of murdering them in cold blood,' he said. Mr Justice Holroyde said he had no doubt that he had expected one or more unarmed officers to attend his false report of a crime.

Sadness: Paul Bone, father of Pc Fiona Bone, makes a statement outside Preston Crown Court today


Emotional: Family liaison officer Natalie Watters (left) and Sam Hughes, brother of Nicola Hughes, outside Preston Crown Court


He said the two constables were performing their public duty when they responded to the call and that Cregan would have seen they were unarmed policewomen as they approached the front door.

'You opened fire with the advantage of surprise,' he said, 'and opened fire before your victims had the chance to do anything to protect themselves.'

He added: 'You pursued them with a cold-blooded ruthlessness - determined to end their lives.'

The judge said the ‘murderous use’ of hand grenades was a crime that ‘must be met with severe punishment’ and the courts must do what they can to deter a similar offence.

He said a whole life term was only applied in an ‘exceptionally serious case’. The aggravating features in Cregan's crimes ‘inescapably’ led him to the conclusion that he should never be released from prison.

He had murdered two or more people, with each case involving a substantial degree of pre-meditation or planning. The judge said the fact that Cregan had pleaded guilty to the four murders during the trial was a factor in his favour, but only to a minimal extent.

‘I have no doubt that your guilty pleas were timed to suit your own purposes and do not reflect regret for what you have done.’
Addressing Cregan and his co-accused in the dock, the judge said he had had ample time to observe them and noted that they had shown no remorse.


Attack: Cregan emptied the magazine of this Glock handgun and then dumped it by the bodies of the officers he had just fatally injured


Extraordinary: Greater Manchester Police discovered this stash of grenades inside a storm drain during Dale Cregan's 17-week trial



Brutal: The trial of murderer Dale Cregan has ended, with the one-eyed killer set to spend the rest of his life in jail

He told them: ‘I have seen no hint of any real remorse or of any compassion towards your victims. None of you have shown any sign that you care at all. Self-interest has been the motivating force for each of you.’

Cregan's whole life tariff comes just a couple of weeks after child-killer Mark Bridger was also given a whole life tariff. The whole life tarriff replaces the death penalty, but there are those who think the death penalty should be brought back for cop-killers and child-killers like Gregan and Bridger.

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Police killer Dale Cregan bragged to friends he lost his eye in a Far-East fist fight but experts believe it was actually 'plucked out' with a knife, it emerged today.

Cregan, 29 - today jailed for life without parole - who wears a black false onyx eye in his empty left socket, apparently told this story because he did not want people to know he may have been tortured.

Instead, he used it to enhance his reputation as a hard-man drug dealer working on the streets of Manchester.

For years Cregan had maintained that on one of his regular luxury holidays to Thailand he had got into a brawl and was hit so hard in the face with a knuckle duster that it crushed his eyeball.

But police sources, who have looked at his socket closely, said today that there is no marking or scar tissue around it, suggesting that instead of being punched it was carved out with a blade.

For 17 weeks Cregan has been forced to take out his eye as he left and returned from court to ensure officers could check he is not hiding anything in the empty socket.



 
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karrie

OogedyBoogedy
Jan 6, 2007
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bliss
Lifetime in prison?

Here's a better alternative:

I'll gladly pull the wagon from under him. No charge for the service, of course.

We've had about enough of your left wing, prisoner coddling, oh.... never mind. Carry on.