LIVERPOOL

Merseyside Police ’s Chief Constable thanked members of the public who helped him trace a kind-hearted taxi driver who paid his respects at the funeral of PC David Phillips .

Sir Jon Murphy said he wanted to express his gratitude to the man, who got out of his hackney cab and stood to attention as the policeman’s funeral cortege passed him on the Strand on Monday .

Police said they have now been able to identify the driver, a 73-year-old former merchant seaman from Dingle , who has been driving taxis in Liverpool for about 20 years.

A spokesman said: “The Chief Constable will be writing to him to thank him for the respect he paid on the day, he was particularly struck by the fact that the taxi driver took time to get out of his cab and stood to attention whilst the entire procession went past.”

As many as 2,000 mourners attended the Liverpool Anglican Cathedral funeral of the dad-of-two, who was killed on duty in Wallasey in the early hours of October 5.

Members of the public lined the streets as the officer’s wife Jen, 28, and their two daughters, walked behind the coffin of the 34-year-old husband and father.

Sir Jon said he was “really struck” by the actions of the respectful hackney driver who was in traffic along Liverpool’s Strand at the time when the cortege passed.

In an open letter, published on the ECHO website Sir Jon also thanked members of the public.

In it he wrote: “I was moved by the way in which individual members of the public stopped to pay their respects, ranging from the taxi driver in the white hackney carriage on The Strand who stood to attention as the cortege passed, to construction workers who removed their hard hats.”

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