Memorials to North Yorkshire policemen murdered by multiple killer Barry Prudom

  • Video report by Jon Hill.

The families of two North Yorkshire Police officers shot dead in the line of duty more than four decades ago have urged people not to forget the heroic sacrifices made by frontline workers, as new plaques were unveiled in their memory.

PC David Haigh and Sgt David Winter were both gunned down by the fugitive Barry Prudom from Leeds, whose 17-day killing spree prompted Britain's biggest ever manhunt.

PC Haigh was sent to Norwood Edge car park near Harrogate to arrest a poacher in June 1982, where instead he found Barry Prudom asleep in a car. Prudom shot PC Haigh dead, and in the days that followed as police hunted him down, Prudom shot Nottinghamshire couple George and Sylvia Luckett.

Barry Prudom. Credit: PA

George died but his wife survived. Prudom then fled back to North Yorkshire, shooting and wounding one officer before shooting dead Sgt David Winter at point blank range in Old Malton. Prudom eventually turned the gun on himself.

A plaque was unveiled in Harrogate on Wednesday to honour PC Haigh. Another was unveiled in memory of Sgt David Winter in Old Malton by the Police Memorial Trust and North Yorkshire Police on Thursday.

PC Haigh's widow, Annette Jukes, said: “He was such a lovely man, he really was. He was my first love, it's lovely that they have recognised him now and the boys can come up, we can come, and the grandchildren have got somewhere to come and see their great grandad.”

PC Haigh's murder robbed his three sons of their father. Carl was 11, Richard just three years old.

The memorial to PC Haigh.

Richard said: “I think he's a hero. He's a man that has gone to work and has not come home. We're proud of him, I wanted to know him, to meet him properly, but I'll never get that chance ever, but at least I've got somewhere now to reflect and be with him and that's it."

Chairwoman of the Police Memorial Trust, Geraldine Winner, said: "The public should know that these young people and these older people risk their lives every day when they are going out, and I think it's very important that we should all remember these people who have given their lives for our safety."

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