Murder of Raymond Codling

Raymond Anthony Codling was born on 5 January 1940 in Yorkshire. He served in the Royal Navy, leaving with the rank of Petty Officer, before joining the Metropolitan Police. In the 1970s he transferred to Greater Manchester Police, rising to the rank of inspector.

On 14 September 1989, Codling, then 49, was on duty with Sergeant James Bowden, 45, at Birch motorway services on the M62 near Heywood, Greater Manchester. The two officers were looking for a white van when they approached a motorcyclist. The motorcyclist, later identified as Anthony Hughes, produced a pistol and opened fire on the officers. A shot aimed at Sergeant Bowden did not injure him, but two further shots struck and killed Inspector Codling.

Following the shooting, a manhunt was launched for Hughes, who had previous convictions for serious offences including robbery and rape. The search ended at a garage in Kendray, South Yorkshire, where Hughes had killed himself.

In 1991, a memorial to Codling was unveiled at the site of his death at Birch Services. The unveiling was carried out by Michael Winner, founder of the Police Memorial Trust, together with the then Home Secretary, Kenneth Baker. In February 2010, a memorial service was held at Birch Services, attended by the Bishop of Manchester, the Right Reverend Nigel McCulloch, who met Codling's widow.

This case is documented on Wikipedia, drawing on the Police Memorial Trust's record of officers killed in the line of duty and contemporaneous local news coverage from the Manchester Evening News. The matter is considered resolved insofar as the person responsible for the shooting, Anthony Hughes, died during the manhunt that followed and was never formally tried in a court of law due to his death.