Widow leads mourners at funeral of hit-run Pc Dave Phillips

The widow and two young daughters of the Merseyside Police officer killed in a hit-and-run have led thousands of mourners at his funeral.

Pc Dave Phillips, 34, was knocked down by a stolen Mitsubishi pick-up truck while trying to stop the vehicle with a stinger device in Wallasey, Merseyside, in the early hours of October 5. He died in hospital shortly afterwards.

Today, his wife Jen walked up to Liverpool Anglican Cathedral, following her husband's coffin. The couple's daughters, Abigail, aged seven, and three-year-old Sophie, also followed the hearse with other members of his family.

Once the family had entered the huge cathedral, which was shrouded in fog, hundreds of police colleagues from around the country queued to get into the service, forming a snake of uniforms back down into the city.

Pc Phillips's coffin was carried through the streets of Liverpool to the cathedral in a black hearse with his collar number 6554 picked out in white flowers down the side.

The funeral procession, which stopped at Merseyside Police HQ, was led by a pipe band from the Police Service of Northern Ireland.