A heartbreaking tribute has been published eight years on from the killing of a Merseyside Police officer.
PC Neil Doyle was hit with a "piledriver" punch while off duty and on a night out with colleagues just six days before Christmas in 2014 in the city centre. Prosecutors claimed two of the attackers, Andrew Taylor and Timmy Donovan, knowingly confronted the 36-year-old as a police constable, and said to him: "Evening officer".
Taylor and Donovan were sentenced to seven years and six months and six years and 10 months respectively after being found guilty of manslaughter by joint enterprise by a unanimous jury after a six-week trial.
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Eight years on from the attack, a heartfelt tribute to the officer was posted online by a charity established in his name. The Doyle Phillips Foundation was set up as a legacy to PC Neil Doyle, and to PC Dave Phillips, who was killed by a stolen truck in a hit-and-run in Wallasey in October 2015.
The foundation aims to support families of officers and staff who have died while serving for Merseyside Police.
The tribute said: "I knew Neil and Dave, but I didn’t know Neil and Dave. I knew of them, as colleagues, but I didn’t know them as people. I wish I had. The unimaginable happened to them both. It was time to stand up. We always hope others would, if it was us.
"But what if nobody did? Time to look after colleagues and their families, time to do what I wish I never had to do, the unimaginable had happened.
"Autopilot - just help others. Not blood brothers - yet absolutely, brothers. ‘The Thin Blue Line’…. It’s a bit of a thicker line actually. The families left behind - are on that line. They are at the front of that line. I forever wish I had never met them, those at the sharp end of the line.
"I forever wish the Thin Blue Line got thicker. Yet here we are, 8 years on. The same feelings, the same unimaginable pain. colleagues knew them better, the families, of course, even more so.
"I wish I had never met Sarah. Or Jen. Or their families or friends. I wish we didn’t have to ask for your support. But sadly that’s far from the truth.
"The Doyle Phillips Foundation remembers, The Doyle Phillips Foundation will never forget. The Doyle Phillips Foundation are here. The Doyle Phillips Foundation wished we weren’t.
"RIP Neil Doyle. The committee, trustees, supporters and friends of this group send our love, care and thoughts to Sarah and Neil’s family during this very difficult time. Hobes, Sarah’s Vice Chair."
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