Trust unveils memorial in moving tribute to PC
Last updated 13:27, Thursday, 03 July 2008
MOVING tributes were paid to a Tynedale beat bobby during a ceremony held to unveil a permanent memorial in his honour.
On Sunday, over 100 friends, family and colleagues of West Woodburn’s PC Joe Carroll flocked to the spot near where he died on the A69 in April 2006.
They were there to remember the popular 46-year-old who was well-known and respected throughout the North Tyne communities he served from Bellingham Station for 13 years.
PC Carroll died in the line of duty while transporting a prisoner in a patrol car from Hexham to Newcastle with colleague Insp. Brian English.
The prisoner, former Sandhurst staff sergeant Steven Graham, pulled on the car’s handbrake while it was travelling at 70mph on the A69 causing the vehicle to crash, killing PC Carroll.
Graham, who had been arrested following a drink-fuelled domestic disturbance, later admitted manslaughter and was jailed for five and a half years.
And on Sunday a memorial stone, made from granite and engraved with the Northumbria Police logo, was unveiled by PC Carroll’s mother, Hilda, on a grass verge near the entrance to Brocksbushes Farm Shop at Corbridge.
Organised by the Police Memorial Trust, a charity established by film producer and director Michael Winner, the ceremony was attended by PC Carroll’s widow, Caroline, Northumbria Police Chief Constable Mike Craik and Mr Winner himself.
The A69 was closed for a short time as a lament was played by a piper and flowers laid at the site.
Mrs Carroll spoke during the ceremony and described her husband as a man who loved life; a loyal friend and her soul mate. She also thanked Mr Winner for the memorial, and for the commitment and time he gave to the Police Memorial Trust.
Mr Craik said: “Joe Carroll was killed doing the job he loved, in the place he loved, surrounded by the people he loved. He epitomised everything we seek from neighbourhood officers because he was committed to the people and place where he worked.”
Mr Winner told of how he was moved to set up the Police Memorial Trust in 1984 following the murder of WPC Yvonne Fletcher, who died in a shooting outside the Libyan Embassy in London.
Astounded at the lack of recognition for police bravery and sacrifice, Mr Winner has since been involved in erecting memorials to fallen officers all over the country – PC Carroll’s is the 32nd tribute to be installed.
He said at the ceremony:“Like other services which fight and die for us, the police also die for us and it is absolutely right that the landscape of Northumberland should change just a little bit to accommodate this memorial to the bravery and sacrifice of Joe Carroll.
“We are paying tribute to a man who helped give us peace, security and protection.
“There are thousands of other police officers no less heroic because they have lived on. They know that, but for quirks of fate, it could have been them on that day on April 13, 2006.
“When Joe Carroll went to work that day, the spirit that keeps this nation went with him.”
Flowers and hand-written notes were also sent to the unveiling ceremony by Prime Minister Gordon Brown and Conservative Party leader David Cameron honouring PC Carroll for the courage, dedication and ultimate sacrifice he made.
