PC Tom Clough, 38, has been laid to rest in Redcar a day after his colleague PC Matthew Blades was buried in Hartlepool, as hundreds of police officers gathered to remember the two officers killed in a head-on collision on the A66 last month, while the force behind an expanding organised-crime investigation warns it urgently needs more resources.
A funeral was held on Thursday for PC Tom Clough, the police officer who “gave everything to everybody” before being killed in a horrific wrong-way crash on the A66 near Middlesbrough. The service, held in Clough’s home town of Redcar, came a day after hundreds of officers lined the streets outside a church in Hartlepool for the funeral of his colleague, PC Matthew Blades, 37. The pair were travelling in a marked armed response vehicle when it was involved in a head-on collision with a VW Passat on the A66 at South Bank on 22 August. Five young men travelling in the Passat, which had been heading the wrong way down the dual carriageway following a police pursuit, also died in the crash.
Tributes to PC Clough
Before joining Cleveland Police, PC Clough had served in the British Army in Afghanistan, as well as with the Civil Nuclear Constabulary and British Transport Police. Ahead of his funeral, Cleveland Police Federation chairwoman Lauren Somerville said the support shown by the public had brought his family significant comfort. “The family want everyone to know that the public’s support has brought them so much comfort. Tom was deeply loved by his colleagues,” she said. “People have been contacting me that worked with Tom years and years ago. It would be an understatement to say that every single place that he served was privileged to have him with them.”
Somerville described Clough as a much-loved partner, son and brother, as well as the “father” of his beloved sausage dog, Frank. She added: “Tom used to say there wouldn’t be anyone at his funeral and he couldn’t have been more wrong. Tom was described as giving everything to everybody.”
Hundreds of officers and members of the wider policing family were expected to attend the Redcar service, with representatives from forces beyond Cleveland joining local officers, following the significant national police presence already seen at PC Blades’ funeral the day before. Local preparations included road restrictions and arrangements to allow members of the public to pay their respects as the funeral procession passed through Redcar. Some officers who attended PC Blades’ funeral wore identity patches reading “PC 2443 BLADES” and “PC 3234 CLOUGH” on their uniforms. Cleveland Police Chief Constable Victoria Fuller has previously described the pair as “brave, committed, professional people who put the public before themselves,” and an online fundraiser has since raised more than £1.2 million for the officers’ families.
What happened during the crash
The Independent Office for Police Conduct (IOPC) has opened an independent investigation into the police pursuit that preceded the fatal collision, obtaining police radio communications, incident logs and in-car video footage as part of efforts to reconstruct the events immediately before the crash.
According to the investigation, the pursuit of the Passat lasted less than seven minutes. Crucially, the armed response vehicle carrying PCs Clough and Blades was not the vehicle pursuing the Passat; the officers were instead travelling correctly along the A66 while assisting with the wider police response. Officers pursuing the Passat abandoned the chase once it entered the A66 travelling in the wrong direction. The fatal collision occurred approximately 10 seconds after the pursuit was called off, with the crash itself recorded at around 3.39am on 22 August.
Cleveland Police had originally responded to reports of two vehicles being driven dangerously overnight. The Passat was being sought in connection with a Volvo XC60 that had allegedly been used to ram properties around Middlesbrough; police subsequently recovered the Volvo. Investigators believe the Passat was travelling on cloned registration plates, which had been detected by cameras before officers attempted to stop the vehicle.
An expanding organised-crime investigation
In the course of investigating the events leading up to the collision, police have arrested 12 people, nine men and three women aged between 19 and 61, on suspected offences including participating in the activities of an organised crime group and firearms offences.
The aftermath of the crash has since contributed to a major policing operation across Middlesbrough, with approximately 200 additional specialist officers brought in from six neighbouring and northern police forces. Cleveland Police has made at least 24 arrests as part of the wider operation responding to subsequent violence and organised-crime concerns in the area. Cleveland Police has previously said the five young men killed in the Passat may have had links to organised crime.
The five young men who died
The five occupants of the Passat were named as Michael Robert Cahill, 23, Jakub Matusiak, 23, Makai Saddington, 18, Theo Rae, 17, and Cole Robert Worthy, 17. Cleveland Police subsequently disclosed that four of the five had previous criminal convictions, with Michael Cahill the only occupant identified as having no prior convictions.
Theo Rae had an extensive record involving vehicle theft, aggravated vehicle taking, shoplifting, cannabis possession and assaulting a police officer. Makai Saddington had previous convictions for possession of a knife and drugs, as well as assaults on police officers, and was separately awaiting trial over allegations that he assaulted one Cleveland Police officer and racially abused another at the time of his death.
Following widespread speculation about social media videos involving dangerous driving, Cleveland Police said it had found no evidence that the activity immediately preceding the fatal collision was being filmed for TikTok. However, older social media footage associated with Saddington reportedly showed him inside vehicles involved in high-speed encounters with police, contributing to a wider public debate about young people posting dangerous driving content online. Downing Street subsequently condemned the practice of recording dangerous driving for online entertainment as “utterly disgraceful.”
Disruption at other funerals
The funerals of the young men who died in the Passat have themselves required significant additional policing, amid concerns about large convoys, motorbikes and quad bikes. Several schools closed early ahead of Jakub Matusiak’s funeral, with authorities anticipating significant congestion and disruption in the area; a previous gathering following his death had reportedly attracted around 200 people, with fireworks and orange smoke released. Separately, a 39-year-old man was arrested on suspicion of assault following a disturbance at the funeral of 17-year-old Cole Worthy at Teesside Crematorium.
Calls for more resources
Cleveland Police Chief Constable Victoria Fuller has warned that the force needs substantially more resources in light of the violence and organised-crime problems exposed by the tragedy. While the Home Office has provided around £2 million in emergency funding, Fuller has argued that Cleveland requires approximately £26 million to meet its longer-term policing needs, along with around 270 additional officers to restore staffing to pre-austerity levels.
Cleveland remains one of the smallest territorial police forces in England and Wales, despite currently recording the highest crime rate of any police force area in the country.
