Danny Regan, a drug dealer who had moved to Haydock from Leeds to escape the criminal underworld, was shot dead in his high-security home in December 2002. His murder remains unsolved nearly 24 years later.
The murder
Danny, aged 26 and a father of two, had been living in a fortified property on Station Road, surrounded by security cameras and a 6ft-high spiked fence. He had told his mother he did not think he would live to see his 30th birthday – a premonition that proved correct.
On December 12, 2002, it is believed two men broke into his house and shot him in the chest with either a pump action or semi-automatic shotgun. His body lay undiscovered for three days. The hitmen escaped in a silver or grey Rover, which was later found burned out on Cooper Lane.
Investigation and aftermath
Two men aged 22 and 25, from Leeds, were arrested in connection with the incident, and an e-fit of a suspect was released by police. However, nobody was ever charged with Danny's murder.
It was later discovered that the house was owned by Mark Lilley, an on-the-run drugs baron who had been sentenced in his absence to 23 years in prison in April 2000. Lilley, a 6ft tall, 20-stone bodybuilder, had skipped bail mid-trial and was believed to be hiding in Spain or Holland. He was one of the UK's most wanted criminals before being apprehended in the Costa Del Sol and extradited in August 2013.
Mother's campaign and tragic end
In the wake of her son's death, Danny's mother, Pat Regan, became a vocal campaigner against gun crime. She set up a Mothers Against Violence group in Leeds and campaigned for Mothers Against Guns (MAG) and Mothers Against Murder and Aggression (Mama).
Pat, a mother of six, said in 2004: "When I first met other mothers who had felt what I did, I was speechless, and felt numb at finding others who could understand what my family has been through. It made me determined to try to stop this violence, which is why I set up the Leeds branch of Mothers Against Violence. I know it’s too late to save Danny and persuade him to give up the lifestyle which led to his death. But it's not too late to save others, and if the work I do can make another young man think twice, then perhaps Danny's life won't have been lost in vain."
Her fight for justice ended in tragedy four years later, when she was stabbed to death by her grandson, Rakeim Regan, 21. Rakeim, who had paranoid schizophrenia, had experienced a severe decline in his mental health and believed his grandmother was "conspiring with police to get him". He admitted manslaughter and was detained indefinitely in a secure psychiatric hospital in 2008.
In a final appeal for Danny's killer to be exposed, made one year before her own death, Pat said: "I know that Danny's lifestyle may have led to his death and some of the things he did were wrong. But he wasn't an evil person and didn't deserve to die like this."
