Cop killer Dale Cregan 'on hunger strike over prison drugs and phone seizure'

Double cop killer Dale Cregan has gone on hunger strike in prison after his drugs and mobile phone were discovered by wardens.

Cregan, 31, has reportedly gone for a month without eating anything while locked up in solitary confinement at HMP Manchester, formerly known as Strangeways.

The one-eyed former underworld figure ended up on his own after being caught for a second time with drugs and a mobile inside his cell.

According to an insider at the prison, he reportedly hopes the hunger strike will prompt the authorities to move him out of solitary and to a different prison.

Cregan is serving life without the chance of parole for the murdering two police officers – Fiona Bone, 32, and Nicola Hughes, 23 – in 2012.

"Cregan has burned all his bridges in here. He won't get anything like the freedom he had before he started trying to run the joint," a source told the Daily Star Sunday.

"He'll either by on 23-hour lockdown or he'll spend most of his time in solitary. He has not eaten since he was sent into segregation. That's 30 days of not eating.

"It's all an attempt to force the hand of the governor."

Cregan is one of the Britain's most notorious inmates because of his distinctive missing left eye and the brutal manner of his crimes while a cocaine dealer.

Greater Manchester Police conducted its largest ever manhunt in the wake of PC Bone and Hughes' murders. They were lured to their deaths by Cregan, who used a grenade in the attacks.

The community was put under the spotlight when police were forced to appeal for residents to not shield Cregan by providing him assistance while evading capture for days.