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Police killers such as Dale Cregan to face whole-life sentences without parole, Home Secretary to tell officers

By Mancunian Matters staff

Police killers will face life sentences without parole as a minimum under plans due to be unveiled by the Home Secretary today.

Theresa May will announce the proposals, which increase the current 30-year term to a whole life sentence without parole, to thousands of officers at the Police Federation conference.

The most recent police slaying was in September last year when one-eyed Dale Cregan killed PCs Fiona Bone and Nicola Hughes in a gun and grenade attack in Hattersley.

There have been 10 other police officers directly killed in the course of duty since 2000.

Ms May is expected to tell the Bournemouth conference: “To attack and kill a police officer is to attack the fundamental basis of our society.

“We ask police officers to keep us safe by confronting and stopping violent criminals for us. We ask them to take risks so that we don’t have to.

“That is why I am clear that life should mean life for anyone convicted of killing a police officer.”

Cregan pleaded guilty to the murder of police officers PC Nicola Hughes, 23, from Saddleworth, and PC Fiona Bone, 32, from Sale, in Hattersley on September 18 last year.

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