A Silsden police officer has died on an angling trip off the Scottish coast. Det Con Neil Pickering, 40, suffered a heart attack while on holiday aboard a 20ft fishing boat, On Yer Marks.

He was with three other men in Luce Bay in the Mull of Galloway off south-west Scotland.

A May Day call was received by the Liverpool Coastguard just before 6pm on Monday. The men were advised to head for Drummore harbour where an ambulance, a local doctor and Coastguard officers were standing by.

Det Con Pickering was brought ashore at Drummore, but is understood to have died before reaching hospital.

"The other three men in the boat are to be commended - they did all the right things including giving him mouth-to-mouth resuscitation," says a Coastguard spokesman.

Det Con Pickering was taken by ambulance to Garrick Hospital in Stranraer, where he was pronounced dead at 7.10pm.

A married man with two children, he joined the police as a cadet after leaving school and became a serving officer in February 1973. He served the majority of his career at Toller Lane in Bradford and had worked at Shipley, Bingley and Keighley. He was working at Leeds-Bradford Airport in the All-Ports Department at the time of his death.

Police spokesman Chief Inspector Geoff Denham describes Det Con Pickering as a hard-working, enthusiastic police officer who will be sadly missed.

A statement from Dumfries and Galloway police says there are no suspicious circumstances surrounding his death. A post mortem will be carried out.

and a report sent to the Procurator Fiscal.

A spokesman for the Procurator Fiscal's office at Stranraer says: "Certain inquiries are being made at the moment. Until the report is completed, it remains confidential."

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