County will be represented at funerals of slain officers
Police officers from Leicestershire will attend the funerals of Greater Manchester constables Fiona Bone and Nicola Hughes, who died in the line of duty earlier this month.
Funeral services for Pc Bone, who grew up in Castle Donington, and Pc Hughes will take place at Manchester Cathedral on Wednesday and Thursday.
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Pc Bone, 32, and 23-year-old Pc Hughes died in a grenade and gun attack while attending an apparently routine job in Tameside, Greater Manchester, earlier this month.
Up to 100 police officers from Leicestershire police volunteered to give up a rest day to work for Greater Manchester Police while their funerals take place, to enable its officers to attend.
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However, the force there has requested the assistance of just two officers from each of the UK's 40-plus forces.
Instead, officers not on duty will travel to Manchester in uniform to line the streets while the funerals take place.
Sergeant Siobhan Gorman, of Leicester's Spinney Hill Park police station, hopes to attend.
She said: "It's hard to put into words why I want to be there, but this could happen to any one of us.
"All I can say is that it is the right thing to do to be there to pay our respects."
Sergeant Danny Graham, also of Spinney Hill Park station, said: "There is such strong feeling about these officers' deaths that a lot of us will do whatever we can to be there."
Pc Simon Alborn, a response officer in the city, said: "The job we do is sometimes dangerous – we run toward the things which other people are running away from.
"They call it 'the police family' and that's exactly what it is.
"We are close and a lot of us want to be in Manchester for the funerals to pay our respects."
Pc Hughes' funeral will take place at 1pm on Wednesday, while the service for Pc Bone takes place the next day at 10am.
Greater Manchester Police's Assistant Chief Constable Terry Sweeney said: "It is incredibly moving to see how Fiona and Nicola have touched so many lives."
A Leicestershire police spokeswoman said the force was doing what it could to enable officers to attend.
The two officers who will attend officially on behalf of Leicestershire to work are still to be chosen. One will be from north west Leicestershire because of Pc Bone's childhood links to Castle Donington.
Comments
by unbiased
Saturday, September 29 2012, 11:28PM
“a very sad affair, those two were killed in cold blood protecting the public in the line of duty, this makes me sick to my stomach it really does!”