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Cregan Trial: Mum Saw Son Shot Dead In Pub

Cregan Trial: Mum Saw Son Shot Dead In Pub

Jurors in the trial of Dale Cregan have heard a woman describe the moment she saw her son being shot dead as they were drinking in a pub.

Michelle Kelly told the court she was in the Cotton Tree at Droylsden in May last year when a gunman in a balaclava came in and blasted her 23-year-old son Mark Short as he was playing pool.

Giving evidence from a witness box surrounded by glass, Ms Kelly wept as she told the jury she had seen her son try to grab the man with the gun.

She said: "I heard one bang. I turned then I seen my son. It was just 'bang bang bang' and it was over with.

"My son never did nothing wrong. He was playing pool and he got shot."

The court heard that on the day Ms Kelly returned to work following Mark's death her partner David Short, 46, was shot dead.

She denied that he had sworn revenge for the death of his son.

She said: "At the end of the day my son was brutally murdered and I had to sit there and see my husband sob like a baby because he seen his son murdered.

"He never knew who come and shot Mark. He said he intended to leave it to the police."

Before being shot himself, David Short gave a statement to police about his son's murder.

In it he said that he had been in the toilet of the Cotton Tree pub when his son was attacked.

He told officers: "When I came out of the toilet I heard 'bang bang bang'. I thought it sounded like a gun and went back into the toilet ... next thing I remember someone tell me Mark had been shot.

"I looked down and saw him lying on the floor. At first I could not believe it. I put my hand under his head but I could see he was dying. He was lifeless."

Cregan, 29, and five other defendants have denied murdering Mark Short following a feud between two families.

Cregan and three other defendants have denied murdering David Short.

The jury at Preston Crown Court has heard that Cregan allegedly went on to evade capture and murder police officers Fiona Bone and Nicola Hughes.

He denies four charges of murder, four of attempted murder and one of causing an explosion.