Tribute paid as Jackie Emmott dies after crash (From Ilkley Gazette)

Tribute paid as Jackie Emmott dies after crash

8:00am Thursday 20th September 2012 in News

A dedicated counsellor who helped traumatised police officers in the wake of the Hillsborough football disaster has died after a two-car collision on a moorland road.

Jackie Emmott, 67, died at Bradford Royal Infirmary following the collision on Hangingstone Road, near Ilkley, on Sunday.

Mrs Emmott, of Ilkley, was injured when her Mercedes C240 and an Opel Kadett collided on the stretch of road between Ilkley’s Cow and Calf Rocks and Burley Woodhead at 5.10pm.

Her husband, retired solicitor and former Bradford councillor Tony Emmott, 70, was also injured, but has since been discharged from hospital.

A 37-year-old man and a 46-year-old woman were also hospitalised.

Paying tribute to his wife, Mr Emmott said: “She will be missed by many people. Whoever she met, she put a special spark into their hearts.”

She helped many people during her career in professional counselling work, running her own practice, working with West Yorkshire Police and working at Bradford University, Specialising in counselling sufferers of post traumatic stress, she played an important role working with police officers following the 1989 Hillsborough Disaster, and providing a psychological debriefing for officers after a fatal armed stand-off in Rastrick.

Mrs Emmott also did extensive voluntary work in West Yorkshire, volunteering for Victim Support, Relate, disability charity Scope and Bradford Bereavement Support.

Mrs Emmott was born in 1944 at Semon Home, an Ilkley convalescent hospital used as an emergency maternity hospital during the War years. She attended St Joseph’s College, Bradford.

She worked at Bradford Council, before leaving to start a family.

Mr and Mrs Emmott had three children, Sean, and twins Josephine and Richard. Sadly, Sean was tragically killed in a road accident in Scotland in 1990.

Mr Emmott said the family’s second tragedy was “like lightning striking twice”.

She gained a Bradford University degree in the 1980s. Following the Bradford City Fire, as West Yorkshire Police began building up a welfare department, she was appointed a police welfare officer.

In 1996 she joined Bradford University counselling staff and students, and also set up her own practice as a counsellor.

A grandmother of four, she retired earlier this year.

West Yorkshire Police confirmed yesterday (Wednesday) the driver of the Opel, a 37-year-man from Holland, had been arrested on suspicion of causing death by dangerous driving, and remained in police custody.

Police asked for anyone with information on the collision to contact the Major Collision and Enquiry Team on the non emergency number 101.