Murder detective who served on three councils, was Preston Mayor’s Consort and even appeared in Coronation Street, dies aged 80

Norman Abram, a former detective who became a councillor - and even appeared in TV's Coronation Street - was aged 80.

Christine Abram, an Honorary Alderman of Preston, who was Mayor in 2007/08, said: "Norman loved being my consort. We had a fabulous time.

"We did lots of events for charity during that year. He was incredibly supportive. I really couldn't have done it without him."

The couple, who were married for 56 years, shared a love of politics and were both leading lights for the Liberal Democrats in Preston until they left to join the Conservatives in 2008 saying they were disillusioned with the party at both local and national level.

Norman stood down from the city council that same year, but continued as a Tory member on Lancashire County Council. He was still a serving member of the parish council in Cottam up until his death.

Christine served on Preston Council for 20 years, standing down in 2018 because she felt rank and file councillors no longer had any say under the authority's cabinet style administration.

As a police officer Norman spent two years in Lancaster, but the rest of his service was based in Preston where he became a detective sergeant on the county-wide Scenes of Crime team.

He worked on the brutal murder of Joan Harrison - which was tied in with the hunt for the Yorkshire Ripper following the infamous Wearside Jack tapes.

He also investigated the killing of nine-year-old Imran Vohra in Avenham Park in 1985 and the robbery of the NatWest Bank in Fishergate in 1988 when an armed gang took the manager's family hostage overnight before getting into the bank's vault the following morning and making off with a huge amount of cash.

After leaving the force he spent much of his time in local politics, but also became a TV extra, appearing in Corrie as a customer in the Rovers Return. He also turned up in the hospital series The Royal and a drama about the Marchioness disaster in 1989 in which 51 people died when a pleasure steamer was struck twice by a dredger on the River Thames.

"He did a few different programmes, he just loved it," said Christine. "When we were Mayor and Mayor's Consort we raised £30,000 for charity. We were so busy, no-one could keep up with us.

"I've had so many cards from people who knew him and the over-riding message is what a nice guy and a true gentleman he was. No-one ever had a bad word to say about him."

Norman's funeral will be on Thursday (September 29) at St Anthony's Church on Cadley Causeway at 11:15am. The funeral cortege will then make a special journey past Preston Town Hall on its way to the city's crematorium.

He leaves two daughters - Kate and Ruth - and two grandchildren Teddy, aged 9, and four-year-old Florence.