A CEREMONY will be held in Suffolk at the weekend for a Special Constable who was killed in a tragic farm accident.A plaque will be unveiled at Hadleigh police station in memory of Kevin Smith, 48, who was based there before his death in November.

By Alison Withers

A CEREMONY will be held in Suffolk at the weekend for a Special Constable who was killed in a tragic farm accident.

A plaque will be unveiled at Hadleigh police station in memory of Kevin Smith, 48, who was based there before his death in November.

Mr Smith was working for Nayland-based Anglia Grain Services as a seed processor and driver when he was crushed to death between a forklift truck and a seed-cleaning vehicle at Mulley's farm, Little Bromley.

The Health and Safety Executive is still investigating and an inquest date has still not been set - though his widow, Dawn, 42, said she expected it to be sometime soon.

Mr Smith, one of seven children, joined the special constabulary in 1996 when he was living with his first wife and their daughter, Gemma, now aged 16, in Stoke by Nayland and working for a fruit farm near Sudbury.

His sector officer David Dyble said he quickly became popular with his colleagues and was one of the stalwarts of the Hadleigh sector.

Mr Smith changed his regular job over the next few years, moving to a building supplies company and then to Anglia Grain Services. His marriage broke up and eventually he met a new partner, Dawn.

They married and the new family, which included Dawn's daughter Aimee , now 12, settled in Elston Walk, Tiptree.

Dawn said: “He was very funny and he used to make me laugh. He was a very kind and unselfish man and he would do anything for anybody.

“He was very good with my daughter. He was so enthusiastic about everything.

“He was very committed to being a special. He would work whenever they needed an extra officer on a Friday evening in Hadleigh but also for special occasions like the Hadleigh Show, fireworks at Boxford and the last job he did just a few days before he died was the Remembrance Day parade.”

The couple had just over four years of marriage before her husband was killed.

Mr Dyble said Mr Smith had been offered the chance to transfer to another police station nearer to Tiptree but had wanted to stay with the friends he had made at Hadleigh even though it was a 20-mile trip from his new home.

He said: “Kevin often appeared to be almost disbelieving when confronted with the exploits of the criminal fraternity. This was, however, down to the fact that he could always see the good in everybody. In fact he never had a bad word to say about anybody.

“He touched a lot of people's lives performing a duty that he loved.

“To us he was a very special 'special' and will be sorely missed but not forgotten. It was a privilege for us all to have known him.”