A MAN on the run from police gunned down his wife and her mother in Prestwich just days after issuing a death threat over the phone.

Double murderer Christopher Pomeroy made the call to his pregnant wife Joanne (24), while wanted by police in southern Ireland, and told her: "I'm going to kill you, you bitch. I'm going to kill your mum, you and then me."

Six days later the 24-year-old slipped back into England using a false name, went to his wife's home in Northurst Drive and shot both her and her mother, Mrs Diane Pritchard, in the head at close range. Pomeroy then hanged himself in woods.

Despite a history of violence throughout Pomeroy's nine-year relationship with Joanne, the killer's mother, Kathleen Pomeroy, told an inquest at Bury on Friday (March 16): "It must have been a mistake. Christopher would never hurt his children or Joanne.

"He had had a nervous breakdown and was drinking all the time. I don't think, in my own mind, that he would hit Joanne. He loved her."

The inquest heard how, four months before the tragedy on July 10 last year, Pomeroy had been released from prison after serving a term for breaking Joanne's arm when he hit her with a shotgun. Forensic evidence showed that Mrs Pritchard was shot in the leg and the neck as she leaned out of a first-floor window to shout for help. Joanne was shot once in the face.

Amazingly, both woman managed to stagger downstairs, with Mrs Pritchard (41) finally collapsing in the street.

Pomeroy shot his wife, who was 16 weeks pregnant with their fourth child, in the head as she lay on the couch. Both women later died from their injuries. Pomeroy, from Cheetham Hill, hijacked a Vauxhall Astra in nearby Windsor Road.

The driver, Mrs Elaine Mills, of Windsor Road, told police how Pomeroy burst into the car, pointed a pistol at her chest and ordered the terrified mum to get out. The car was later found abandoned in the grounds of the Abraham Moss Leisure Centre in Cheetham Hill. Pomeroy's body was discovered soon after.

Armed police officers cordoned off Mrs Pritchard's house and surrounding streets after the self-employed caterer was found collapsed on the pavement outside her home, covered in blood.

Superintendent Steve Westcott, the senior office in charge of the incident, said that it was feared Pomeroy was still in the house.

"Only when it became apparent that Joanne was injured inside the property did I order the armed response officers to enter the building."

Despite having a bullet fired through her head, Joanne died more than two hours later at North Manchester General Hospital. Mrs Pritchard was already dead.

Recording verdicts that the mother and daughter were unlawfully killed, coroner Mr Barrie Williams said that, due to Pomeroy's long history of violence against his wife, the police had installed a panic alarm at the house in Northurst Drive.

After he telephoned her from Ireland saying that he would kill her, it was arranged for Joanne to live in a refuge in Longsight. She decided against the move as she believed her husband was still in Ireland.

Mr Williams, who recorded a verdict of suicide on Pomeroy, added: "His threats of extreme violence were carried out on July 10.

"After the murders, he turned on himself and took his own life by hanging himself at the second attempt."