On 18 September 2012, two Greater Manchester Police officers, Nicola Hughes and Fiona Bone, were killed by Dale Cregan in a gun and grenade ambush while responding to a report of a burglary in Greater Manchester, England.
The incident was the first in the United Kingdom in which two female police officers were killed on duty. Greater Manchester's chief constable Peter Fahy called the attack "cold-blooded murder" and then British prime minister David Cameron described it as a "despicable act...of pure evil".
On 12 February 2013, Cregan changed his plea to guilty in relation to the murder of the two police officers. Three months later he admitted to carrying out two separate murders in 2012, which were linked to a gangland feud in Manchester. Cregan was sentenced to a whole life tariff at Preston Crown Court on 13 June 2013.