Cregan accomplice appeal thrown out

TWO of the accomplices of murderer Dale Cregan have seen a challenge to their sentences thrown out by the Court of Appeal.

Anthony Wilkinson (34) and Jermaine Anton Ward (25), of Belgrave Road, Moston, took part in the horrific murder of David Short at his home in Clayton, at the peak of a decade-long feud between two families.

Mr Short was shot nine times by Wilkinson and Cregan in August, 2012, and Cregan detonated a hand grenade on the dying man’s chest.

Cregan — who later used a handgun and grenades in the notorious murder of Diggle policewoman Nicola Hughes and her colleague Fiona Bone — admitted murdering Mr Short, as did Wilkinson.

Ward was handed a life sentence with a 33-year minimum. Wilkinson got life with a 35-year tariff. Cregan was jailed for the rest of his life.

Yesterday Sir Brian Leveson, Mr Justice Irwin and Mr Justice Foskett, sitting at London’s Criminal Appeal Court, heard Wilkinson and Ward ask for their minimum terms to be reduced, arguing they had been unfairly treated.

It was submitted that the judge, when sentencing them for David Short’s murder, had been influenced by the horror and notoriety attached to Cregan’s killing of the two police officers.

But the judge said Wilkinson and Ward had shown “no sign that they cared for the great harm they had caused. and refused the applications.