A tragic police officer was described as a “thoroughly decent human being” as family and friends gathered to pay tribute to him in the Highland capital yesterday.
The remains of former Inverness High School pupil Gordon Semple were found in a south London estate in April after the Metropolitan Police officer was reported missing.
Italian web developer Stefano Brizzi has been charged with strangling then dismembering the 59-year-old after meeting him through a gay dating app.
A memorial event was held yesterday at the Crown Court Hotel in Inverness, with guests asked to attend wearing bright colours as they paid tribute.
Mr Semple’s brother Ronnie, an Inverness taxi driver, said: “We hope it will be the way he would have wanted it – a very happy occasion, like the police funeral in London, which was overwhelming.”
Highlands and Islands MSP David Stewart, who first met Mr Semple at Inverness High School in 1968, wrote a eulogy which was read at the memorial.
He said he was “proud to call Gordon my friend” and recalled a day trip they organised to Hampden to watch Scotland qualify for the 1974 World Cup.
He said: “Gordon had rounded-up other school pals, booked the train and the match tickets.
“Of course, that was Gordon, always organising and arranging for others.
“The match result sent us ‘over the moon’ and they ‘gave us 110%’ – as they say in football parlance – and we crawled back to Inverness railway station at five in the morning.
“I am not sure that any of us made school the next morning and I don’t remember getting into trouble for it.”
He added: “We still kept in touch when Gordon came home to see his family in Inverness and, when I was elected to Westminster in 1997, I invited Gordon to the Commons.
“By that time he was in the Met and it was great to catch up with him and talk about what our former school pals were now doing.”
Mr Stewart said: “He will be greatly missed as a family member, a friend and work colleague – a loved partner, brother, uncle and friend to many.
“I will remember Gordon for his cheery smile and his well-grounded values, as a thoroughly decent human being who could not do enough to help everyone he met.
“Let us all say, as one today, we will remember him. I will always remember the elation of coming home from that Scotland football match thanks to Gordon. Rest in peace.”