TRIBUTES have been paid to a former Clitheroe police inspector who was honoured after disarming a gun-wielding hostage-taker.

More than 100 people attended the funeral of Ian Hartley, 73, who first walked the beat in the town after joining the force in 1965.

The father of two and grandfather of five had a 30-year career in the police. And he had a hand in solving a number of high-profile cases including the notorious Black Panther murder investigation in the 1970s.

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A few years before he retired in 1996, he received a commendation for his bravery in tackling an armed hostage-taker in former Clitheroe pub the Bridge Inn.

Ian’s son Steven said: “He was fun to be around. It was lovely that so many people turned up (at his funeral) to pay their respects to him.

“He was a character and had a great sense of humour. He was a decent man who had come from nothing.

“Dad enjoyed his work and he never wanted to leave the Ribble Valley after arriving in the 1960s.

“He would have been told off instead of rewarded if he had tackled the hostage-taker nowadays in the way that he did it then. He did what he had to do I suppose — but that was the kind of person he was.”

Born and brought up in Baxenden, Ian become a police officer at the age of 24 and quickly rose through the ranks to become a sergeant and then an inspector in the 1980s.

He married Jean, 70, in 1962 and moved with his young family to the police house in Pimlico Road, Clitheroe.

After retirement, he kept himself busy by working at police headquarters in Hutton, near Preston, and was later a part-time ambulance driver covering the Ribble Valley and Blackburn areas.

He was a member of Whalley Golf Club for 50 years. And he spent the past 20 years living in Downham Road, Chatburn, having previously resided in Moor Edge, Whalley, after moving out of the police house.

His funeral was at Accrington Crematorium on December 23.