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THE SADDEST RETURN

POIGNANT: PC Jon Henry's coffin being carried from the church where he was married two years ago

Tuesday July 3,2007

By Martin Evans

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A PC stabbed to death as he answered a 999 call was buried yesterday – after a funeral at the church where he married two years ago.

PC Jon Henry was laid to rest with full police honours on the day he should have been celebrating his second wedding anniversary with his wife Mary.

At least 1,000 mourners paid their last respects to the brave family man as 19 colleagues in full uniform carried his coffin, which was draped in a police flag.

The only person missing was his daughter Maggie, who had her first birthday last week. Her family felt the funeral would be too much but she was taken to the church on Sunday to say a private farewell to the father she will never know.

PC Henry, 36, died two weeks ago after being stabbed twice in the chest while trying to restrain a knifeman who had attacked two men in Luton’s town centre.

Yesterday Mary was supported by her husband’s parents, Alex and Dina. Two years before she had married him at Holy Ghost Roman Catholic church – now she had come to bury him there.

Do not remember him through hate, but do what he did and show love to all your special ones

Too upset to speak herself, her commemoration was read by her uncle, Bernard Flynn. It said: “When you remember Jon, try to think like him. Do not remember him with a tear in your eye but with a mischievous glint.

“Do not remember him through hate, but do what he did and show love to all your special ones.”

Acting Chief Inspector Rob McCaffrey, his voice cracking with emotion, told mourners: “Jon, we thank you for your love. We thank you for your friendship. God bless you and goodbye.”

He added: “He laid down his life so that the people of Luton could live theirs safely…he has left an enduring legacy to us all.”

The funeral cortege, led by a lone piper, wound its way through the town, stopping outside the police station for a minute’s silence.

The new Home Secretary Jacqui Smith had been hoping to attend yesterday but had to cancel because of the terror crisis.

Tennyson Obih, 27, of Winsdon Road, Luton, has been charged with the constable’s murder.