As Britain grieved the deaths of two young police officers, many people praised the suspected murderer Dale Cregan, 29, in social networks, writes the Daily Mail.
A Facebook-user who set up a fan page calling Cregan, one of the country’s most wanted criminals with a £50,000 reward to who could help police finding him, a ‘hero’ and ‘legend’ that should get an OBE.
On the wall it said: “So a pair of coppers got killed who gives a ****?”
In another comment, the creator referred to the Hillsborough tragedy, saying: “Justice for the 96, not the 2!”
Nicola Hughes, 23, and Fiona Bone, 32 were doing a routine check about a burglary when they were attacked with 13 gunshots and one explosion.
Greater Manchester Police Chief Constable Sir Peter Fahy told BBC: “Certainly it would appear to be that he has deliberately done this in an act of absolutely cold-blooded murder,” but the suspect got cheered-on by many people online.
Niall Keogh, from Manchester, tweeted that Cregan should have ‘blown more of the f*****s up’ and another user wrote that the suspect “is gonna be considered a legend coz the police are c***s. What comes around goes around”, writes the Daily Mail.
The online hate is never one-sided and the journalist Gary Carter tweeted: “Anyone using Twitter to even remotely praise that scumbag Dale Cregan should be banned from having a computer for life.”
The groups and comments are now taken away and pages such as “Name whoever created the ‘Dale Cregan Hero’ page” have taken over. The largest anti-Cregan group, ‘Hang Dale Cregan’, has got over 10,000 members.
Liverpool MP Steve Rotheram on Monday led a parliamentary debate wanting stricter laws against internet abuse, Liverpool Echo writes.
Rotheram said: “When our predecessors were putting down these bills they did not envisage that sickos would use these new inventions for these purposes.”
Image via Getty.
