Year in Pictures: East Midlands

1 of 8 January 9: Pc Ged Walker is dragged to death pursuing a car thief, who is later convicted of manslaughter. He is the first Nottinghamshire Pc to die on duty in 25 years.

2 of 8 May 2003: Plans are unveiled for an East Midlands landmark sculpture called the Sky Vault after a design competition.

3 of 8 May 29: An Iranian poet living in Nottingham sews up his eyes, ears and mouth in protest at the way his asylum case is handled. He ends his protest after nine days.

4 of 8 June 7: Mourners gather for the funeral of 14-year-old Adam Morrell of Loughbourgh who was tortured and killed by a gang in a house in November 2002.

5 of 8 July 4: A murder inquiry is launched after Stephen Paul Hilder, 20, dies when his parachute is sabotaged before a jump in Lincolnshire.

6 of 8 September 11: Four Navy officers are disciplined at a courts martial for the grounding of the HMS Nottingham. The ship hit rocks off Lord Howe Island in Australia in July 2002.

7 of 8 September 30: Nottingham jeweller Marion Bates is gunned down in her shop in Arnold during a robbery.

8 of 8 November 4: Lincolnshire schoolboy Luke Walmsley is stabbed to death in the corridor of his school.