THE MAN who handed himself in to police after two British policewomen were murdered in cold blood in Manchester yesterday is wanted for questioning over two gangland killings in the city during the summer.
Constables Fiona Bone and Nicola Hughes were attacked with a gun and grenade minutes after they had called to a house in Hattersly to investigate a burglary report – which is now believed to have been a hoax to lure them to their deaths.
Manchester’s chief constable Peter Fahy laid the blame at the door of Dale Cregan (29), who has been the subject of a police manhunt – backed by a £50,000 (€62,000) reward – since two killings in May and August.
Cregan handed himself in at a local police station, where he was arrested on suspicion of killing the two officers and of killing Mark Short (23) in May and his father David (46) three months later.
Four men were charged in connection with Mark Short’s shooting in a pub in the city.
Cregan was subsequently questioned before being bailed, but police could not find him after Short’s father was killed in August.
Manchester police launched a manhunt for Cregan and another man, Anthony Wilkinson, after the gun-and-grenade attack that left Short snr dead on August 10th.
Last night, however, residents in Hattersly claimed Cregan had been living in the Abbey Gardens house for several weeks, if not longer – though police said that no one had brought such information to them.
The motive for the 11am attack on the policewomen was unknown last night.
Constable Bone had spoken to her fiance about wedding invites just before she went to Hattersly.
