UPDATE: |The journey of a gun News

When GMP found a deadly Glock 45 in a bedroom it revealed a history of violence and murder. Neal Keeling reports.

It was a good recovery for the police. A deadly Glock 45 automatic handgun and ammunition stashed in a bedroom.

But the weapon’s antecedence is chilling. It was found as officers raided the home of a woman in south Manchester.

It was forensically linked to four shootings including a murder. Now after the sentencing this week of four people for drugs and firearms offences the history of the gun’s use can be revealed.

It was used in a notorious murder; another hit in which a man was shot but survived; fired into a home; and most recently a gunman used it in a reckless attack on a group of men which is being treated as attempted murder.

When it was recovered police also found a regular magazine; one extended magazine and 18 rounds of compatible ammunition.

Analysis of the weapon found the DNA of two members of a county lines drugs gang – Clint Curtis, a rapper who had glorified weapons, and Jerome Williams on the trigger.

Now they, Giovanna Edmondson, in whose home in Caythorpe Street, Moss Side, the gun was found, and a fourth person have been jailed for their part in a gang which ran the “Lex” drugs line.

The line marketed heroin and cocaine and at its peak was reaching 3,300 potential customers a day, Manchester Crown Court was told.

Trace the criminal journey of the Glock 45 on this animated map – watch each of the incidents over nearly 12 years

But the same weapon was used in one of the region’s most infamous murders.

On the morning of August 12th 2012 Dale Cregan and Anthony Wilkinson gunned down David Short, 46, at his home in Folkestone Road East in Clayton.

The gun was one of two used to carry out the hit.

The killers had first staked out Droylsden Cemetery where Mr Short visited the graveside of his son, Mark, who had been murdered by Cregan in May of 2012. But when he did not appear they hatched a new plan.

They went to David’s home where they spotted him unloading furniture from the boot of his car. The pair chased him through his home firing at him until he collapsed behind a gate in an alley. More shots were fired and Cregan threw a grenade onto his body.

Both would receive life sentences after admitting the killing.

Cregan also pleaded guilty to the murder of Mark Short. With a balaclava over his head, he had walked into the Cotton Tree pub in Droylsden on May 25th 2012 searching for his target, David Short. But he was in the toilet.

He fired seven shots, blasting Short’s son Mark, 23, in the chest and shooting and injuring three other members of the family.

After killing the Shorts, Cregan, who is serving a whole-life prison term, murdered unarmed policewomen Nicola Hughes, 23, from Saddleworth and Fiona Bone, 32, from Sale, after luring them to an address in Mottram in Longdendale, Tameside, on September 18th 2012 with reports of a bogus burglary.

Three years after the murder of David Short the Glock was used again. On September 27th 2015 it was fired in Manchester.

Detective Inspector Rick Crossley of GMP’s Serious Organised Crime Group, said: “It was discharged that day on Clarendon Street Hulme and one person was wounded. No one has been arrested for that offence.”

On June 12th 2019 it was again used on Acorn Close in Levenshulme. Damage was caused to a home in the street.

Four years later on December 21st 2023 it was used in what police are investigating as three counts of attempted murder near The Apollo Theatre music venue. “It is a Glock 45 which is an original lethal purpose firearm – not a converted weapon – and this one has an extended magazine.

“In the December 21st incident a firearm was discharged in Stockport Road in Ardwick, Manchester. A Mercedes car was involved. A male passenger alighted from the vehicle. He walked onto the road and then fired bullets at a group of males that had come from a takeaway. No one was injured and that investigation is still ongoing and no one has been charged at this time,” said DI Castley.

He added: “The National Ballistics Intelligence Service (NABIS) do work for us with bullets and casings and identify links to previous offending that has taken place by unique marks on them through forensic examination.

“When we recovered this particular firearm last year we established that it had been in circulation since at least 2012, and used in the murder of David Short. It is very significant to us – what we call a linked series firearm. It became a priority for us to locate that firearm.

“Whoever had it or the group that had it may have been intending to use it as it has already been used in discharges. It is a trustworthy firearm – it works, it is reliable. So we needed to find it. It is used in 2012, then 2015, then four years later, and then another four years later. It is being passed around. It may have been sold on.

“It has ammunition with it, so it is a sought after commodity to be passed around. It was recovered while we were investigating a drug gang, and with drug crime you often get firearms which can be used as a violent way to enforce such activity.”

The gun was found in a bedroom of Giovanna Edmondson’s home on May 7th 2024. It was in a bag for life in a cardboard box beside her bed.

Manchester Crown Court was told the DNA of Clint Curtis and Jerome Williams on the trigger was “overwhelming evidence” of their connection to the weapon. Edmondson’s DNA was not found on the weapon, the court heard.

Curtis, of Beamish Close in Ardwick, was jailed for 19 years and four months after he was convicted of two counts of conspiracy to supply class A drugs, possession of a firearm with intent to endanger life, and possession of ammunition with intent to endanger life.

Williams, 30, of Lagos Close, Moss Side, was jailed for 12 years after he was convicted of the same offences. David Curtis, 28, of no fixed address was jailed for six years after he was convicted of two counts of conspiracy to supply class A drugs.

Edmondson, 35, of Claythorpe Street, Moss Side, was jailed for five years after she admitted possession of a firearm with intent to endanger life and possession of ammunition with intent to endanger life. Des Jenson, mitigating for Edmondson, a hairdresser, said there was no evidence his client had taken the gun out of the box and she had acted under the direction of others who had “exploited her vulnerabilities.”

Last year Greater Manchester Police seized 81 firearms. In 2023, the figure was 68 and in 2022, 79. So far this year 25 have been recovered.

DI Castley said: “Immediately after the discharge in 2023 of this gun commenced an investigation with the object of locating it, as at that point it had been used in four discharges.

“We have now got that firearm out of circulation, which is a horrible bit of kit, and the people who had control of it have been given lengthy custodial sentences. We give priority to recovering firearms. They pose a lot of danger to the community.”