He went to bed with his fiancée on a quiet cul-de-sac, then gunmen burst in and shot him dead

It was around 3.45am when the two hooded gunmen broke in through the French doors.

Calmly they made their way upstairs to the bedroom where they thought their target Patrick 'Paddy' Logan was sleeping. But disturbed by the noise of the intruders the 40-year-old had already called 999.

"Yeah, er, I've just been woke up," he told the operator. "There's been two...there's been people down the stairs. They've just ran out, I don't know what's going on. They've just ran...down through the window."

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As the operator then asked "Out of your property?" five shots from a semi-automatic pistol rang out. Mr Logan, 40, was hit twice in the chest as his fiancée Susan Thompson looked on.

Her 16-year-old son, who was sleeping in the room next door, also heard the gunshots and ran in to witness the horror unfold. Two bullet heads made by the Czechoslovakian ammunition manufacturer Sellier and Bellot were recovered from the scene.

The gun used was 'clean'. It had never been used in a crime in the UK before and has never been used since.

The 'break-in' was actually a professional hit. As the hitmen sped away from the quiet cul-de-sac in Withington in a silver Vauxhall Vectra, a murder investigation was already kicking into action.

At a press conference the following week a harrowing recording of the 999 call was made public. In it Mr Logan could be heard pleading with the operator for help after the hitman walked into the bedroom before shrieking as the gun was pointed at him.

Gunshots were heard on the tape followed by a brief moment of silence before Mr Logan's fiancée Susan Thompson screams. Ms Thompson then picked up the phone to tell the operator her fiancée had been shot. "Please help," she's heard pleading down the phone. "He's been shot. Please, please help me. Oh my god, please, oh please'.

A grief-stricken Ms Thompson, who was just weeks away from marrying Mr Logan, bravely told the press conference: "Patrick was not a bad man and he did not deserve this. No-one deserves to die like."

Belfast-born Mr Logan was working in Manchester as a car dealer, having moved to England when he was 15. He was known to have friends and associates within republican paramilitary groups and connections with criminal gangs in Dublin and Northern Ireland.

Fingerprints and an impression from a basketball training shoe were the only forensic evidence recovered at the time. One witness heard what is believed to be the gunman and his accomplice talking and the name 'Kieran' being used.

Recording a verdict of unlawful killing at an inquest in 2007, Manchester Coroner Leonard Gorodkin said: ''It seems pretty definite the people who broke into the home of the deceased were not out to cause general mayhem.

"They did not shoot Susan Thompson or her son. It is quite clear they broke into the house with the simple, singular intention of shooting Mr Logan. This was not a robbery, this was a murder."

Five years later Patrick’s mum Margaret, and brother Frank, told how his death tore the family apart. "I’m sure my brother must be turning in his grave that his killer is still out there," Frank, from Hulme, told the Manchester Evening News.

"When Patrick was killed it broke our family apart. We have never had closure – it’s like he’s just been forgotten. I think someone in Manchester knows something and I want them to come forward."

"At the time police promised me they would get who had done this," Margaret, from Rusholme, said in the same interview. "I’m 85 now and just hanging on, trying to find out who did this. I would love to know why."

Launching a renewed appeal for information in 2021 Martin Bottomley, Head of Greater Manchester Police's Cold Case Unit, revealed the prime suspect is an Irish Republican paramilitary hitman already serving life for murder who had been hired to kill Mr Logan.

Mr Bottomley said: "Over time allegiances change. Also people who may have been too frightened to come forward may now feel able to do so. Mr Logan may have had criminal links but that will not affect our efforts to get justice for his family.

"He was executed in front of his fiancée and her child was in a nearby room. Susan did not see the actual killing as she pulled the bed blanket over her terrified.

"There is a £50,000 reward on offer for information leading to the arrest and conviction of those responsible for this murder."