Danny Regan, a known drug dealer who had moved to St Helens to escape the criminal underworld, was shot dead in his fortified home on December 12, 2002. He was 26 years old. Nearly 24 years later, his murder remains unsolved.
The Murder and Its Aftermath
Danny had relocated to Haydock from Leeds just 12 months before his death. The father of two lay dead for days before his body was found, three days after two men allegedly broke into his house and shot him in the chest with a pump action or semi-automatic shotgun.
The hitmen escaped in a silver or grey Rover, which was later discovered burned out on Cooper Lane. 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, no one was ever charged with Danny's murder.
Mother's Heartbreaking Words
On the second anniversary of her son's death in December 2004, Danny's mother, Pat Regan, spoke to the Yorkshire Evening Post. She said: "I miss Danny so much more this year than last year, because last year it felt like he would still come home.
"Every day I thought I would walk in, and find the trail of cornflakes he used to leave on the kitchen table, which would mean he'd been here. It's still so hard to face the idea that my son is never coming home.
"My son was no angel and became involved in drugs and with dealers. I would not want anyone to go through it.
"Danny knew the dangers he was facing and I was always waiting for a knock at the door. He came home in a coffin and his designer gear came home in big brown envelopes.
"He wanted to escape the world he lived in and knew the dangers he was facing. I was always waiting for a knock at the door and eventually it came."
The Fortified Property and Its Owner
Danny, who had ties to Leeds' criminal underworld, lived in a fortified property on Station Road, surrounded by security cameras and a 6ft-high spiked fence. It was later discovered that the house was owned by Mark Lilley, an on-the-run drugs baron. Lilley, a 6ft tall, 20-stone bodybuilder, had been sentenced in his absence to 23 years in prison in April 2000 but had disappeared mid-trial after skipping bail. He was one of the UK's most wanted criminals before being apprehended in the Costa Del Sol and extradited in August 2013.
A Mother's Fight Against Gun Crime
Following her son's death, Pat became a vocal advocate against gun crime. She set up a Mothers Against Violence group in her hometown of Leeds and campaigned for Mothers Against Guns (MAG) and Mothers Against Murder and Aggression (Mama).
In 2004, she said: "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."
Tragic End for Pat Regan
Pat's 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 before the attack 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."
