Double cop killer Dale Cregan boasts of living life of luxury behind bars
Murderer who gunned down two police officers says he's enjoying spending his time in the gym and playing tennis and snooker
COP killer Dale Cregan has boasted of his cushy life in a psychiatric hospital where he plays tennis and scoffs pizza.
He wrote to a pal telling of how he goes to the gym daily to get “ripped” and even has access to kayak lessons in a swimming pool.
One-eyed Cregan, 33, is serving life at Ashworth high-security unit, Merseyside, for murdering unarmed cops Fiona Bone, 32, and Nicola Hughes, 26, in 2012.
He admitted this was easier than a mainstream prison in the notes leaked to .
He had earlier killed gangland rivals Mark Short, 23, and his dad David, 46.
In his letters, Cregan wrote: “I’m good bro just smashing the gym and playing snooker you know how it goes.
RELATED STORIES
“You know you got your a**e kicked at snooker and tennis, you had me at the kayaking tho bro (ha ha).”
Cregan said he has his own room in the hospital where he likes to “chill” after his workouts. He has also been allowed to cook pizzas.
But he added: “I’ve got a none tooled catering session now. My doctor said me and knives don’t mix, so I couldn’t get on the proper ones.”
His treatment been slammed by unnamed sources, who told The Mirror that life in the ultra-secure facility is like ";a holiday camp".
They said: "It is like a little village in there. Like a little housing estate and the patients are able to wander around. I think they have got the life of Riley.
";Cregan is quite happy with his phone calls and going to the gym. It is better than being in prison and being locked up for 23 hours a day. Everyone fights to get in Ashworth. It is like a little collection of youth centres."
They added: “He’s trying to make out he is paranoid, but I don't think he is. It was always his plan to get in there. It is appalling what he has done but it is like a holiday camp in there for him.
“He gets his visits off his family. He is laughing at us. It is a disgrace.
“He should be in Strangeways, not in a holiday camp like that.”
Cregan shot dead Mark Short, 23, and his dad David, 46, in 2012 before going on the run. Just six weeks later he used a false report of a break-in to lure cops Nicola and Fiona to a house, where he shot them and threw a grenade at their bodies in a violent attack in Hattersley, Tameside, in September 2012.
He opened the front door as the officers walked up the garden path and immediately shot them with a Glock handgun, shooting PC Hughes eight times, including three bullets to the head as she lay on the ground.
PC Bone was also hit up to eight times, but managed to fire her taser as Cregan shot 32 bullets in less than 30 seconds.
He threw a military grenade on the path where the bodies lay before dropping his gun and driving a short distance to Hyde police station, where he calmly walked up to the counter clerk and said: "I'm wanted by the police and I've just done two coppers."
Cregan put his arms out to be handcuffed and said he was there to hand himself in.
He then told an officer: "I dropped the gun at the scene and I've murdered two police officers. You were hounding my family so I took it out on yous."
He was caged in 2013 and sent to Strangeways in Manchester before being sent to Ashworth permanently by psychiatrists last October.