Son killed in revenge shooting

A woman has told the trial of Dale Cregan how a gunman burst into a Tameside pub and shot her son.

Michelle Kelly told the jury her son Mark Short and partner of 28 years David Short were killed weeks after a drunken pub row between feuding families.

Cregan (29) is also accused of the murders of PC Fiona Bone (32) and PC Nicola Hughes (23), the bloody conclusion, it is alleged, to a string of murderous attacks. Cregan, on trial with nine other men, denies all charges.

The jury at Preston Crown Court heard trouble first began at the Cotton Tree pub in Droylsden when Theresa Atkinson (53), the matriarch of her family, clashed with Raymond Young, a member of the Short family, while she was “drunk, loudmouth and swearing”.

Leon Atkinson (35) is alleged to have recruited his right-hand man Dale Cregan to help take revenge for the disrespect shown to his mother. Just before midnight on May 25, with the Short family gathered in the Cotton Tree pub, a balaclava–clad gunman burst in as Ms Kelly sat at the end of the bar.

“I heard one bang and I turned, then I seen my son, he had his back to me as the second one went off and then it was just, ‘Bang, bang, bang”’ Ms Kelly told the jury. “Mark tried to grab him.”

Nicholas Clarke QC, prosecuting, asked the witness: “You in fact took steps to intervene yourself? You grabbed a pool cue and ran outside to try to find him?”

“Yes,” the witness said.

Ms Kelly said her partner believed their son’s murder was over the row with Theresa Atkinson — but denied he had vowed to take revenge. “He put his hand on his heart and said he would let the police do the job and find’s Mark’s killers,” Ms Kelly said.
The trial continues.