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Gun used by Dale Cregan accomplice found 12 years on

Jonny Humphries
BBC News, Manchester
PA Media Mark Short, who has short hair, poses for a picture with his arm around the shoulders of his father David Short, who has a bald head. Both men are topless in the summer weather. PA Media
David Short (left) and his son Mark Short were both murdered by Dale Cregan and his associates in 2012

A handgun used in a murder carried out by notorious police killer Dale Cregan and his henchman has been recovered 12 years later.

The Glock self-loading pistol was used to shoot David Short at his home in Manchester in August 2012 - three months after Cregan and his gang allies had also murdered Mr Short's son, Mark, in a pub.

Cregan was on the run for those murders in September 2012 when he lured two police officers, PCs Nicola Hughes and Fiona Bone, to a house and killed them.

Greater Manchester Police (GMP) found one of the weapons used on Mr Short on 7 April 2024, during a raid on a safehouse in Moss Side used by a drugs gang who made rap videos about their exploits.

GMP A black self-loading handgun, with the slide pulled back, on a piece of brown paper with a ruler placed next to it. GMP
The Glock self-loading pistol was still in circulation and being used by criminals as late as 2023

Ballistic tests confirmed it had been fired by Anthony Wilkinson, who was beside Cregan as the pair chased David Short through his house in Clayton, east Manchester, before shooting him at least nine times on 10 August 2012.

Cregan, who wanted Mr Short dead so he would not try to avenge his son, then tossed a grenade onto Mr Short's body as he lay dying.

Mr Short had been in the toilets of the Cotton Tree pub in Droylsden on 25 May 2012 when Cregan and others opened fire.

A court later heard he emerged to find his 23-year-old son fatally wounded, and cradled him in his arms as he died.

GMP Police mugshots of Anthony Wilkinson, who has shaved hair and is clean shaven, and Dale Cregan, who has short dark hair and is missing his left eye which has an empty socket.GMP
The gun had been fired by Anthony Wilkinson (left), who joined Dale Cregan (right) in chasing David Short and shooting him in August 2012

Wilkinson was jailed for life with a minimum term of 35 years after admitting Mr Short's murder, while Cregan received a whole-life order after admitting the murders of David and Mark Short, PC Bone and PC Hughes.

A GMP spokesperson told the BBC the gun was "one of two" used in the murder of David Short.

The weapon Cregan had fired was the same he later used to kill the two police officers and had been already been recovered at the scene of that attack.

But more than a decade later, the gun Wilkinson fired at Mr Short was still in use by criminals on the streets of Greater Manchester.

Tests on the Glock revealed it had also been used in three other non-fatal shootings, including one as recently as 2023, which remains unsolved.

It is unclear how the handgun ended up in the hands of the gang arrested in 2024, but criminal groups regularly trade or share illegal weapons.

GMP A composite image of Fiona Bone, who has shoulder length brown hair and is wearing a blue scarf and green top, and Nicola Hughes, who has long straight brown hair and wears a blue dress. Both are smiling. GMP
PCs Fiona Bone (left) and Nicola Hughes were unarmed when they were lured into a trap by Cregan who called in a false burglary report.

It was discovered as part of an investigation into a criminal gang operating a heroin and crack-cocaine supply line known locally as the Lex Line.

Detectives found Clint Curtis, 34, was the head of the group which had a network of safe-houses across Manchester and Stockport.

Curtis also saw himself as a rap artist, the force found, recording high-end production music videos where he bragged of his exploits on the streets.

Det Insp Rick Castley from GMP said the videos, published on YouTube, "glorified the criminality that he was engaged in".

Curtis and his accomplices were placed under surveillance and across April and May 2024 raids were carried out on properties linked to the gang.

GMP Clint Curtis, who has short black hair and a black beard, and is wearing a black hoodie over a white t-shirt and has sunglasses on the top of his head, sits in the front of a car and raps into the camera.GMP
Clint Curtis appearing in a rap video where he bragged of evading the "feds"

On 7 May, an address in Caythorpe Street, Moss Side, was searched where the Glock and a large quantity of bullets were recovered from a messy bedroom.

The occupant of the house, Giovanna Edmondson, was arrested.

Two other members of the gang, 33-year-old David Curtis and Jerome Williams, 35, were also rounded up by police.

Clint Curtis later pleaded guilty to conspiracy to supply Class A drugs, and was found guilty of possessing a firearm and ammunition with intent to endanger life. He was jailed for 19 years and four months at Manchester Minshull Street Crown Court.

Williams was convicted of the same offences and received 12 years in prison, while David Curtis was convicted of the drugs offences and got a six year sentence.

Edmundson was convicted of possession of a firearm and ammunition with intent to enable another to endanger life and was jailed for five years.

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