Pc Fiona Bone And Pc Nicola Hughes Families At Court For Dale Cregan Trial (PICTURES)

Armed Police Stand Guard As Families Of Murdered Police Officers Arrive In Court

The family and loved ones of two police officers shot and killed in Manchester have arrived at court amid high security.

Pc Nicola Hughes and Pc Fiona Bone were killed in a gun and grenade attack last year. Dale Cregan has been charged with their murder.

Parents Paul and June Bone held hands, as did Pc Bone's partner Clare Curran who walked in with the officer's sister, Vicky.

Open Image Modal

June and Paul Bone arrive in court

Pc Hughes's parents are separated.

Her father Bryn arrived with wife Natalie while Pc Hughes's mother Susan walked in with a police family liaison officer from Greater Manchester Police.

Cregan, 29, is also charged with the murder of father and son David and Mark Short in the months before Pc Hughes, 23, and Pc Bone, 32, were killed.

Open Image Modal

There was high security outside the court

Cregan will appear in the dock alongside nine other defendants in Court 1 at Preston Crown Court.

Open Image Modal

Dale Cregan, accused, will appear in court alongside nine others

His co-defendants are variously charged with helping or taking part in one of the four murders or firearm offences or assisting an offender.

All 10 face a jury trial having pleaded not guilty to all charges.

Open Image Modal

32-year-old Fiona Bone and 23-year-old Nicola Hughes were killed after they responded to reports of a burglary

Pc Hughes and Pc Bone were murdered as they responded to a report of a burglary last September in Hattersley, Greater Manchester.

Four months earlier former amateur boxer Mark Short was gunned down at the Cotton Tree pub in Droylsden, Greater Manchester.

His 46-year-old father was found dead on 10 August following a blast at a house in nearby Clayton.