
Dale Cregan: The 999 Trap
Four Murders, a Nationwide Manhunt, and the False 999 Call That Lured Two Police Officers to Their DeathsBy Maximilian C. JamesLength7h 47m
About this audiobook
On 18 September 2012, Police Constables Nicola Hughes, 23, and Fiona Bone, 32, answered what appeared to be a routine 999 burglary call in Greater Manchester. It was a trap.
The man waiting for them was Dale Cregan, already wanted in connection with the murders of Mark and David Short and at the centre of a major nationwide manhunt.
THE 999 TRAP reconstructs the violent feud, the killings, Cregan’s disappearance, the false emergency call that drew two unarmed officers to Abbey Gardens, and the criminal proceedings that followed.
Drawing on court evidence, official records and contemporary reporting, Maximilian C. James separates established fact from allegation to tell the story of four murders, an extraordinary police hunt, and one of the most shocking attacks on British policing in modern history.
Audiobook details
GenreTrue Crime
Length7 hrs 47 mins
Narrated byListen with 1,000+ voices
FormateBook with Audio
Publish dateSep 5, 2026
LanguageEnglish
Table of contents
1Dale Cregan: The 999 Trap
26Two generations of aftermath
2AUTHOR'S NOTE
27WEAPONS AND ESCALATION
3CONTENTS
28Firearms access
4Why the lie worked
29Grenade supply
5Information asymmetry
30Former Yugoslavia
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6Thirty-eight minutes of normality
31Psychological effect
7CREGAN'S WORLD BEFORE 2012
32THE FIVE WEEKS
8Family as attachment and explanation
33Week one
9Money and status
34The network contracts
10Travel
35Specialist advice
11The problem of charisma
361 September
12The eye and visual identity
37Intelligence
13The room before the shots
3817 September
14David in the pub
3918 September
15The first investigative problem
40Fifty armed raids
16A father under threat
41The reward
17The cemetery plan
42The distinctive face
18Folkestone Road
43Public frustration
19Sharon Hark and separate verdicts
44THE FEUD AS A SOCIAL SYSTEM
20From investigation to emergency
45SAFE HOUSES
21FATHER AND SON
46THE BUGGED HOUSE
22Mark at twenty-three
47THE PUBLIC MANHUNT
23David's reputation
48UNARMED POLICING
24The grave
49THE CONTROL ROOM
25The barbecue
50A career still beginning