Police sold death threat home with no warning

A POLICE force bought a senior officer’s house because he had been targeted by notorious killer Dale Cregan – then cynically sold it to a young couple without warning them of the danger, The Mail on Sunday can reveal.

The astonishing cover-up happened after one-eyed Cregan, pictured, who murdered two female PCs, vowed to take revenge on Assistant Chief Constable Steve Heywood, who helped put him behind bars.

Mr Heywood moved out of his family home because of the threat. Greater Manchester Police and the local crime tsar then took the highly unusual step of using taxpayers’ money to buy it for £205,000.

It was then sold to a young married couple – but GMP failed to tell them the chilling reason it had been put on the market. The couple moved in with their two young children. They are now considering legal action against the police force, with the woman saying: ‘I want to know why the police considered Mr Heywood’s safety and security more important than mine or my family’s.

‘How would they know if we were still under threat, because they would not have told Cregan the police officer had moved?’

The police frantically sent a senior detective round to the house on Friday to ‘reassure’ the family only after this newspaper uncovered the deal.

When the couple moved into the fourbedroom detached property they were simply told that the previous occupant was moving with his job. But Mr Heywood and his wife Janet had actually left a year earlier – after being told that he was at risk over his role in the hunt for the notorious drug dealer and murderer.

In a deadly rampage across Greater Manchester lasting several months in 2012, Cregan had shot dead one man in a pub, then killed the victim’s father with a hand grenade. He then made a hoax 999 call to which PCs Nicola Hughes and Fiona Bone responded. They died when he threw a grenade at them and opened fire.

In June 2013, Cregan was given a whole life sentence – meaning he will never be released – for all four murders.

Police and Crime Commissioner Tony Lloyd defended his decision to buy the house: ‘It was taken in order to ensure the safety of a police officer who had been put at risk through carrying out his duty to protect the public.’