Father who doesn’t know partner died
THE partner of the murdered off-duty policewoman has been sedated since the bombing and does not yet know she has died, it emerged yesterday.
Paul Price, 49, and Detective Constable Elaine McIver, 43, were blasted with shrapnel while waiting for his daughter in the foyer of Manchester Arena.
The father-of-two is in hospital with a broken leg, shrapnel injuries over his body and burns to his head and face.
His brother Mark said: ‘Paul is still under sedation and is in critical care. Luckily he appears to have escaped brain injury and his vital organs are okay. He has been unconscious since it happened.’
Mr Price’s father John, 79, from Liverpool, said his son and Miss McIver had been about to buy a house in Widnes, Cheshire. They wanted to be closer to his children Miles, 20, and Gabrielle, 13.
John said: ‘Paul is still under sedation and we dread the moment he finds out Elaine didn’t survive. He doesn’t know she is gone yet.
‘We are devastated beyond belief. It is just like a bad dream. When Paul met Elaine an angel walked into his life. He had been in a very dark place following a very acrimonious divorce.’
Meanwhile, Scots father Rockey McGovern, 39, has told how he immediately drove 200 miles to Manchester after receiving a harrowing phone call from his daughter, who suffered shrapnel wounds in the attack.
Moments after the blast, Ella, 14, rang him, saying: ‘Daddy I can’t move my legs. There’s blood everywhere, there’s been an explosion.’ The line then went dead. Mr McGovern, who was working in Scotland, said: ‘I was just thinking “My God, what do I do”.
‘I decided to get dressed, get in the car and drive down.’
He joined Ella, who lives in Haslingden, Lancashire, with her mother Laura, in hospital.
Mr McGovern, formerly of Helensburgh, Dunbartonshire, but who now lives in Lancashire, added: ‘From what she has said, people directly in front of her took the brunt of the blast.’
And last night, the family of Eilidh MacLeod, the Barra teenager who died in the bomb attack, paid tribute to their ‘beautiful, intelligent, popular and talented daughter’.
In a statement they said: ‘We would like to thank the emergency services who did everything in their power to help. Sincere thanks also go to all who have supported us through this terrible time.’