Chai Brady
Photo: PA Media/BBC The Catholic MP Sir David Amess who was murdered last week has been remembered as a “dedicated, warm” man who was involved in pro-life causes of all kinds.
Sr David (69) was stabbed to death by a suspected terrorist in a church in Southend West in Essex, England, during a constituency surgery.
Member of the House of Lords, Baroness Nuala O’Loan, described Sir David as a “superb MP who worked tirelessly for his constituents and was involved for decades in pro-life causes of all kinds from the protection of life to the abuses of human rights in Iran”.
“His murder came as a dreadful shock,” Baroness O’Loan said, “Political representatives should be able to go about their business safely – he was just doing his normal constituency surgery, helping the people for whom he cared so much.”
She added: “Warm, heartfelt tributes were paid to him by members of all political parties and others in the House of Lords, then we walked across to St Margaret’s Church in the grounds of Westminster Abbey for a very poignant and very beautiful service in which we remembered his great contribution to public life. He is remembered as wonderful, dedicated, warm, funny but above all perhaps as a very good man. He will be terribly missed.”
Sir David was a Conservative MP since 1983 and was a practicing Catholic who was married with four daughters and a son. He was stabbed multiple times in his constituency during a regular Friday meeting at Belfairs Methodist Church in Leigh-on-Sea.
Fr Jeff Woolnough, a priest who rushed to the church after hearing of the attack, tried to administer Last Rites to Sir David but was stopped from entering the crime scene by police. He prayed on the street outside the police cordon.
The terrorist suspect, a 25-year-old who is believed to have links with Islamist extremism, was being held under the Terrorism Act when this paper went to print. The police were not looking for anyone else.