Lured to their deaths

the long version

When PCs Nicola Hughes and Fiona Bone attended a routine morning call in September, 2012, a brutal tragedy unfolded that shocked and saddened a nation. Lying in wait for them was Dale Cregan - the one-eyed fugitive already being hunted by police for a previous double murder. He mercilessly gunned down the defenceless officers with a hail of bullets before handing himself in. Manchester Evening News crime reporter John Scheerhout followed the case from the start to finish. This is his inside account of what triggered Cregan's bloodlust and how the city's underworld imploded during a black summer of guns and grenades.