 | Police killer Dale Cregan bragged to friends he lost his eye in a Far-East fist fight but experts believe it was actually 'plucked out' with a knife. Cregan, 32 - jailed for life without parole in 2013, wears a black false onyx eye in his empty left socket, using it to enhance his reputation as a hard-man drug dealer working on the streets of Manchester. Dale Cregan on the loose was a nightmare for police trying to find him after he started his four-month crime spree. Cregan decided in advance he would kill the police, and eventually took the lives of PC Fiona Bone and PC Nicola Hughes after calling 999 claiming there was a burglary where he was hiding. |  |  |
 | 'I'll be waiting': the shockingly calm caller said. Cregan fired 32 times and threw a hand grenade. He dropped his Glock handgun beside the dying officers before speeding away. |  |
 | Cregan first murdered Mark Short and then killed his father David Short three months later. While on the run, Cregan boasted the £50,000 reward for his capture was 'rare - like me' and on his final night of freedom used a laptop to look himself up on the news, drank beer, smoked cigars and tried to get his hands on cocaine. The Greater Manchester Police said Dale Cregan wanted to be seen as a 'folk hero' to the criminal underworld by killing two police officers. He said part of the killer’s plan to achieve that status was to hand himself in before he could be drawn into a shootout with armed officers. |  |
 | Hand grenades were his 'calling card', and were the same ones thrown in the gruesome murders of Pcs Nicola Hughes and Fiona Bone and father and son David and Mark Short. Officers found a bag containing 10 M75 grenades originating from the former Yugoslavia. The artillery was said to have been used mainly by Serbian forces in the Yugoslav civil war in the early 1990s. M75 grenades were reported to have been used in several attacks by an underworld crime gang in Merseyside before Cregan was finally caught. |  |
 | In October, 2015 it was reported that Cregan was moved to a maximum security hospital after he was judged to be mentally ill. He was sent to Ashworth special hospital after a psychological assessment. Patients enjoy art and music workshops, pottery and cooking classes, plus bingo socials and film nights. Cregan has a private room and can roam the landscaped grounds. |  Dale Cregan pictured with his mother, Anita, at Ashworth Hospital |
