COLLEAGUES and friends brought Whalley to a standstill as they said their goodbyes to one of Lancashire’s top police officers.

DCI Andy Gilbert, who spent much of his career covering Burnley and Rossendale, died from a brain tumour last week after a brave battle.

MORE TOP STORIES:

Around 250 mourners packed English Martyrs’ RC Church for the 46-year-old father-of-three’s funeral yesterday.

DCI Gilbert had been described as one of the county’s most commended officers and had worked across the area. His wife Sarah told the Requiem Mass that his death had left her “totally and utterly heartbroken”.

In a touching tribute, she said: “My heart feels as though it has been shattered into a thousand pieces. Quite simply, it is beyond comprehension.

Lancashire Telegraph:

“There surely can be no justification for this suffocating, brutal pain I feel. That is the price you pay for love — unadulterated, unconditional, unapologetic love.

“Ours truly was a modern-day love story. We fell totally head over heels. You were to be my first and only true love. You have since remained my protector, my adviser, my role model, my best pal.”

The couple, from Brockhall Village, married at the same church in 2001 and have three daughters — Eve, Grace and Alice.

DCI Gilbert, originally from Manchester, was diagnosed with a brain tumour ten months ago and was told in October that it was terminal.

Dozens of his police colleagues lined The Sands as the funeral cortege made its way to the church, DCI Gilbert’s coffin decorated with a Lancashire Constabulary flag and hat.

Lancashire Telegraph:

Mrs Gilbert, a nurse, said: “I could not comprehend how this could possibly happen to such a fit, young, healthy man, having the time of his life with a young family, with so many memories yet to make and so much left to teach the girls. Our dreams and aspirations for the future have been utterly shattered.”

DCI Gilbert, who worked most recently on the force major investigation team, was given five special awards for his work during a police career which began in 1993.

In 1998 he saved the life of an attempted-murder victim in Burnley. And in 2005 he was given a chief constable’s award after bringing to justice a gang involved in more than 40 robberies.

D Ch Supt Edward Thistlethwaite told mourners: “We were thrown together 15 months ago. You would not put Andy and I together as bedfellows but he has had a bigger effect on me than anybody else in my police career.”