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Thousands of police attend PC Nicola Hughes's funeral Thousands of police attend PC Nicola Hughes's funeral
(about 2 hours later)
Thousands of police officers have lined the streets of Manchester for the funeral of PC Nicola Hughes, who died during a routine callout in Tameside last month. For a few hours on Wednesday, Manchester seemed to come to a standstill to pay tribute to a 23-year-old police officer who was killed along with her colleague as they attended an apparently routine callout last month.
Officers formed a sombre black line along Deansgate leading to Manchester Cathedral, while a police helicopter hovered overhead. Deansgate, one of the city's main thoroughfares, was lined with thousands of officers in dress uniform and members of the public forming a black line, several rows deep, as the cortege made its way to Manchester Cathedral, where the funeral service for Nicola Hughes was held.
Hundreds of members of the public joined officers on the city's main thoroughfare. A number of mounted officers in full formal dress waited outside the cathedral entrance and a group of 10 passed along the road as guests arrived for the service. The crowds outside broke into spontaneous applause as the coffin, shrouded in black cloth, was carried inside to the sound of Pie Jesu. Hughes's parents, Susan and Bryn, and her younger brother, Sam, followed the coffin into the cathedral. The force's flag flew at half-mast overhead. In a building opposite, people stood by red, white and blue flowers spelling out RIP.
Entry was by invitation only for friends, family and colleagues of the fallen officer. Every police force was invited to send their chief constable or a senior officer. A big screen broadcast the service for people outside in Cathedral Gardens, close to the city centre. A large framed portrait of a smiling Hughes was placed next to her coffin, which was topped with white flowers and her police cap and gloves. The Greater Manchester police chaplain, the Rev Charles Nevin, said: "While we cannot change what has been, we cannot turn back the clock but we can show by our presence in this cathedral, and in the streets, homes and offices of this land, that we stand beside you."
Speaking at the funeral service at Manchester Cathedral, the chief constable of Greater Manchester police, Sir Peter Fahy, said Nicola had a promising career and it was abhorrent that it had been cut short by an "evil, dark act". Among the dignitaries at the service were senior police officers and chief constables from all the UK's police forces, as well as civic leaders and Sir Bobby Charlton.
"She will be greatly missed by everyone who knew her. We will never forget her or the great sacrifice." Greater Manchester's chief constable, Sir Peter Fahy, said it was abhorrent that Hughes had met her death in such a way, "but the best tribute we can make to her memory is that we continue to uphold the standards and the style of policing she demonstrated so well and ensure that might does not conquer over justice".
She joined the force on 3 August 2009 and was a young recruit who impressed the selection panel. She went on to impress everyone with her "dedication, cheerfulness, huge amount of energy and initiative". Hughes was 21 when she joined the force in August 2009, and had impressed the selection panel with her readiness for the job. "Despite her young years, she was incredibly mature," Fahy said.
He said there was never any doubt about her bravery when searching unoccupied premises or going into the unknown. She also had great compassion for victims of crime, on one occasion "stopping a police van to rescue a mouse that was being fought over by two cats." She took the mouse to a field to release it. She was initially a neighbourhood officer, then a response officer on C relief at Tameside. She set high standards for herself and impressed everyone with her dedication and cheerfulness, Fahy said. "She had huge amounts of energy and initiative."
Fahy said the police service had "exactly the same" expectations of male and female officers. Nicola and her colleague Fiona Bone had "many of the qualities we see in young police officers and young people in general". He said Hughes had a great skill for communicating and showing compassion, ever willing and with great patience. He said Hughes proved herself to be highly capable in situations of disorder, brave when searching apparently unoccupied premises and going into the unknown, and on the other hand compassionate towards victims of crime. He recounted one occasion when she stopped her police van to rescue a mouse being fought over by two cats and release it into a nearby field.
Fahy said Hughes had signed up as a police officer, putting herself in danger. The unarmed status was not a tactical position, nor a historic one, he said, but a central commitment to the minimal use of force. Fahy said she had known full well the risk the job entailed, as her father was a prison officer. He said Hughes and her colleague Fiona Bone had many of the qualities of young police officers and young people who did not have the prejudices and hangups of his generation, and who "take people as they are, whatever their background".
As the hour-long service ended, officers stood to attention, shoulder to shoulder, to line the route from the cathedral with police motorcycle outriders and the mounted police again forming a guard of honour. "Nicola signed up to the police service knowing that she would put herself in danger. She understood that the unarmed status of British policing is not some tactical option or us holding on to an historic tradition now out of date. She understood it is central to our commitment to the minimum use of force to our relationship with the public and to serving citizens rather than controlling them as some arm of the state," he said.
The coffin was borne away as a bell tolled in the cathedral tower. "It is clear from every conversation we have with them that her family were so proud of Nicola. She was a fighter whether engaged in her favourite sport of karate or fighting for justice for a victim of crime. Nevertheless it is her warm smile and her gentleness that stand out from every picture of her. She will be greatly missed by everyone that knew her. We will never forget her great sacrifice."
Hughes was described as a vibrant young woman who had worked as a waitress at the Bull's Head in Delph and liked keeping fit, looking after her nails and hair, and socialising. She was a green belt in karate and loved singing with headphones on – and though she thought she could sing, her family never dared to tell her otherwise.
Her colleague Sergeant Stephen Miskell said: "Nicola, with only three years' service, was already greatly respected and loved by her colleagues, who would variously describe her as being friendly, full of life, always willing to give a helping hand, as keen as mustard, as brave as they come and the chatterbox who always kept everybody else awake." He said her home-baked chocolate muffins had been a personal favourite.
Sergeant Stephen Lovatt read Death Is Nothing At All, Inspector Jane Brown read Don't Let Your Hearts Be Troubled, and Sergeant Gordon Swan read Feel No Guilt In Laughter.
The funeral of 32-year-old PC Bone will take place at the cathedral at 10am on Thursday. The constables were killed in Abbey Gardens on the Hattersley estate in Mottram, Tameside, on 18 September after being sent to investigate what seemed to be a routine burglary report. Dale Cregan, 29, has been charged with their murders and those of David Short, 46, and Short's 23-year-old son Mark.