Hundreds of police pay tribute to lost colleague

Police Community Support Officers directed traffic as roads around St Stephen's Church became choked with cars on Wednesday.

An honour guard of uniformed officers awaited the funeral cortege.

Robin's coffin was borne into church by colleagues. It was draped in the flag of the force he had served both as an officer and latterly as a civilian.

Three hundred orders of service had been printed in anticipation. St Stephen's had been chosen because it is one of Bexhill's biggest churches.

The Vicar, the Rev David Frost, told a packed church that in 15 years at St Stephen's it was one of the three biggest funerals he had conducted there.

Warm tributes to a man who was both a highly professional colleague and a trusted and valued friend were paid by Detective Sergeant Leighton Morgan of Rother CID and by the head of Sussex CID, Detective Chief Superintendent Kevin Moore.

Robin Davis began his career with the former Hastings Borough Police in 1967. He retired after 30 years' local as a detective in 1997 but returned as a staff worker, based at Hastings and then Bexhill.

He died at his Bexhill home aged 61.