DOUBLE cop killer Dale Cregan smirks as he is pictured for the first time since murdering two policewomen, three years ago.
Wearing a £110 designer T-shirt , Cregan appears happy and relaxed as he poses for family snaps.
Mum Anita, 56, and sister Stacey, 27 even appear to have blacked up their left eyes in honour of the one-eyed killer.
Cregan, 32, was given a whole life tariff in 2013 after admitting killing Manchester PCs Nicola Hughes, 23, and Fiona Bone, 32, in September 2012.
The photos were taken when the women made a recent visit to Cregan at high-security Ashworth Hospital on Merseyside.
One of him with the pair has been circulated by the gangster’s pals and family.
A source said: “Friends of his are passing it round as if to say, ‘Look at how well Dale’s doing’.
“But not everyone’s impressed. He lost a lot of respect from people when he shot those police officers.
“If he walked out tomorrow he’d realise he’s not as popular as perhaps he thinks.”
The cops were killed in a shooting and grenade attack after he lured them to his hideaway with a fake 999 call.
Cregan also admitted killing gangland rival David Short, 42, and his son Mark, 23 in separate incidents.
The source added: “Cregan still cuts a menacing figure.
“He does not wear his false eye. He swaggers around in designer gear which most hard-working people can’t afford.
“He clearly has no remorse for his actions. But his mum and sister still dote on him.
“The fact they seem to be joking about his eye and revelling in his notoriety is sickening.”
Following his conviction, Cregan was sent to Strangeways jail in Manchester, and rival gangsters placed a £20,000 bounty on his head.
Just two months later he went on hunger strike in protest at spending 23 hours a day in his cell.
In September 2013 he was transferred to Ashworth — which is home to Moors murderer Ian Brady — before being returned to the prison in February 2014.
In April this year, he was sent back to Ashworth again after staging another hunger strike.
Cregan was examined by a psychologist and a psychiatrist while awaiting trial and they ruled he was not suffering from any mental health problems.
Ashworth can house 228 patients on 14 wards at a cost of £300,000 each per year.
It has a colourful art room, while the grounds include a cricket pitch and chicken coops.
Last night politicians called on prison chiefs to send Cregan back to jail.
Tory MP for Monmouth, David Davies, a former special police constable, said: “If you go back a few decades people who shot police officers in the line of duty faced the death penalty. Whilst I wouldn’t necessarily call for that, it should be clear that those who murder police officers should face the severest punishment.
“I think he should be in HMP Belmarsh in solitary confinement for the rest of his natural life.
“I’m appalled he’s swanning around a hospital in designer clothes while his victim’s families continue to mourn them.”
Last night tragic Nicola’s father Bryn Hughes, of Huddersfield, West Yorks, said he did not give Cregan any “space in my mind”, adding: “I just try to put it all behind me. He’s got nothing to do with me.”
Dad-of-one Cregan, who lost his left eye in a bar fight in Thailand, gunned down Mark Short in a pub in May 2012.
He then killed Mark’s father David three months later.
Cregan spent weeks on the run as Britain’s most wanted man, before forcing his way into a home in Hattersley, Gtr Manchester, in September 2012 and holding a couple and their daughter hostage. The next morning he rang 999 to report a false burglary.
He gunned down the two cops as they approached the house and lobbed a grenade at them.
Earlier this year Cregan’s other sister Kelly, 37, said he refuses to apologise for his crimes.
Mum Anita is facing a possible jail term after admitting money laundering and a £250,000 mortgage fraud which she used to buy her son a house in Droylsden, Manchester. She will be sentenced in September. Many cops in Greater Manchester refuse to even acknowledge Cregan since the slayings.
Ian Hanson, chair of Greater Manchester Police Federation, said: “I’ve no desire to comment on an individual who, as far as police officers are concerned, does not exist and is irrelevant.”
A Mersey Care NHS Trust spokesman confirmed that patients at Ashworth are permitted to wear their own clothes.
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