Tributes paid to West Midlands Police officers killed in the line of duty over 20 years ago
The West Midlands Police Federation has paid tribute to two West Midlands Police officers who were killed in the line of duty more than two decades ago.
DC Robert Ling, who had been based at Sutton Coldfield Police Station, died 21 years ago while escorting two murder suspects in South Africa as they were being extradited.
He was only 27 when he was fatally injured on October 7, 2002, when an unmarked police car he was travelling in overturned. Two other West Midlands Police officers were hurt in the accident.
The vehicle was part of a convoy travelling to Johannesburg Airport with the two hitmen, Paul Ras and Loren Anders Sundkvist, both from Johannesburg.
They were later jailed for life for murdering private investigator Barry Trigwell in Sutton Coldfield in 1995. Trigwell's wife, Ethel Anne Trigwell, was also jailed for life for hiring hitmen to kill her husband.
The federation has also paid tribute to PC Malcolm Walker, who was 46 when he was killed while out on patrol on his motorcycle in Perry Barr on October 4, 2001.
PC Walker's motorcycle was deliberately rammed as he tried to stop a stolen car that had driven through a red light.
Nicholas Walters, previously of Villa Road in Lozells, was secretly recorded bragging about the murder and was jailed for life for killing the married father-of-four, known to his friends and colleagues as Mac.
Walters, who stole the car from a petrol station in Birmingham, had been released on licence from prison in relation to driving matters just four weeks before killing PC Walker.
A tribute to PC Walker was unveiled at Birchfield Road in Perry Barr on July 3, 2003.
