Tribute to ‘much-loved’ police officer who died a month after Covid diagnosis

Tribute to police officer who died a month after Covid diagnosis.

DETECTIVE Sergeant Darren Barker, a specialist financial investigator within the Met’s Specialist Operations Command, was admitted to hospital with Covid in late January and died on Friday night, February 12, surrounded by his close family.

Due to being classed as vulnerable, DS Barker was shielding throughout the pandemic, but continued to work from home and supported his colleagues on various investigations, even playing a lead role in an ongoing, highly complex multi-national money-laundering investigation, which resulted in its first conviction only last month.

Detective Chief Superintendent James Harman, from the Met’s Specialist Operations Command, said: “Darren was a much loved and respected friend and colleague for so many of us across the Met. He was well known for his sense of humour and his positive, gentle nature – but also for his incredible work ethic, professionalism and dedication to duty throughout his long career as a police officer.

“Darren was an extremely talented detective. Despite the challenges of shielding he continued to work on a number of high-profile complex investigations, and his leadership during these investigations was truly invaluable. He will be remembered fondly by everyone he worked with and will be greatly missed by us all. We are truly saddened by his loss and our thoughts are with his family and friends at this difficult time.”

DS Barker joined the Met in March 1992, and during his near 29 years of service, he spent the majority of that time as a detective working in various specialist investigation units and roles. During his time working in the Met, DS Barker has worked on a variety of high-profile investigations and was most recently working in a specialist financial investigation role.

The father-of-two leaves behind wife Caroline, adult children Christian and Lauren, parents Eric and Sheila and brother Eric Barker, who is a serving Met Police constable in the north London area.

Thank you for taking the time to read this news article “Tribute to serving police officer who died a month after Covid diagnosis”. For more UK daily news, Spanish daily news and Global news stories, visit the Euro Weekly News home page.