Cregan murder denials bizarre

Dale Cregan: admitted two murders, denies two more

SELF-CONFESSED police killer Dale Cregan had bizarrely pleaded not guilty to two murders - despite admitting them numerous times, a jury was told yesterday.

His confession that he killed one man in a gun-and-grenade attack was the “worst kept secret in Strangeways”, Preston Crown Court heard.

Cregan (29) changed his pleas to guilty to murdering police constables Fiona Bone (32) and Nicola Hughes (23) in the second week of the trial, which began in February, but has continued to deny the murders of David Short (46) and his son, Mark (23).

He lured the unarmed policewomen with a bogus police call before using a Glock handgun and a military grenade to kill them in Hattersley on September 18 last year.

Nicholas Clarke QC, prosecuting, said the murder of David Short the previous month was done in a similar manner using the same gun and the same type of grenade.

CCTV footage of him attempting to fire a Glock handgun and throwing a grenade at the home of another intended victim shortly after the killing of Mr Short was “the most obvious evidence against him”, he said.

“But bizarrely he has pleaded not guilty,” said Mr Clarke. “It is his right to have a trial and for you to reach the correct verdict.”

He said it had been “an odd murder trial” in that Cregan, who chose not to give evidence — had not challenged the evidence against him.

Mr Clarke reminded the jury that he had told a psychiatrist and psychologist in prison before the trial that he had killed David and Mark Short, and had even made the same confession to his mother.

He talked openly with some of his co–accused while in custody at Strangeways in Manchester about taking the life of David Short, he said.

“The fact that he has murdered David Short is the worst kept secret in Strangeways,” said Mr Clarke.

He had also made no secret of murdering Mark Short in the Cotton Tree pub in Droylsden last May, he added.

It is alleged the violence first started after a long–standing feud between two rival Manchester families — the Shorts and the Atkinsons.

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