Funeral of tragic Katie Rough to be held at city’s historic Minster
THE FUNERAL of seven-year-old Katie Rough will be held in public at York Minster today.
An announcement made by the Minster’s communications team confirmed that the Archbishop of York, Dr John Sentamu, will officiate at the service which is due to start at 1.30pm.
The Archbishop will receive the coffin into the Minster when the funeral procession arrives and will lead the coffin, followed by the schoolgirl’s parents, family and friends, into the cathedral’s quire where the service will take place.
Seating will be available for members of the public in the nave.
After the service, the procession will leave for a private family service of committal.
Katie’s funeral comes five weeks to the day after she was found severely injured with “lacerations to her neck and chest” in a field near Alness Drive in York, under a mile away from her home, on January 9.
An inquest into Katie’s death, held at the end of January, heard that she was taken to hospital but was pronounced dead.
A 15-year-old girl, who cannot be named for legal reasons, was charged with her murder and with possession of an offensive weapon, and is due to be appear at Leeds Crown Court later this month for a pre-trial preparation hearing.
Katie’s mother Alison Rough, who previously took to social media to pay tribute to her “beautiful and kind” daughter, posted a touching picture montage on Facebook in tribute to Katie over the weekend.
Since Katie’s death, Mrs Rough and her husband Paul have appeared in public to release multicoloured balloons to mark what would have been Katie’s eighth birthday.
Hundreds of people, including Dr Sentamu, attended the event at Westfield Park, next to Westfield Primary School where Katie was a pupil.
Meanwhile, a fundraising webpage which was set up to help Katie’s family has raised more than £25,000.