A jury has been sworn in and the charges formally put at the trial of a man accused of the murder of two police officers.
Dale Cregan stood in the dock at Preston Crown Court, along with nine other defendants as the six women and six men chosen by ballot for the jury swore an oath on the Bible to give them a fair trial.
The 29-year-old is accused of the murders of David Short, 46, and his son, Mark, 23, in the months before allegedly killing Constables Nicola Hughes, 23, and Fiona Bone, 32, in an attack on September 18 last year.
Cregan's co-accused are variously charged with helping or taking part in one of the four murders or attempted murders, firearms offences or assisting an offender.
About 150 police officers, some armed with machine guns, are on security duty for the trial.
After the jury were sworn in, the judge, Mr Justice Holroyde, QC, said the trial, expected to last at least 10 weeks, would start properly on Thursday,. The jury were excused until then.
Before they were sent home Mr Justice Holroyde ordered them not to try to research the case on the internet, not to comment or seek comment on Twitter or Facebook or speak to anyone about the case – even family.
"You are duty bound to decide the case only on the evidence heard in court," he said and warned them if anyone was to disobey his orders "consequences could be serious".
He added: "There's quite a lot of police officers around this building and you may have seen reports in the media about security arrangements for the trial.
"I don't suppose it came as any surprise to you, there are security arrangements for a substantial trial like this. You must not in any way hold it against any of the defendants that these sort of arrangements are made."
The hearing was adjourned until today.
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules hereComments are closed on this article