Graham Gooch

Gooch was diagnosed with stage four bowel cancer in 2024. Despite initial success with chemotherapy and immunotherapy, he died on the morning of Sunday 25 October 2026, aged 76. His death was reported by Blog Preston on 30 October 2026 with a detailed tribute from his family.

Lancashire County Council said he had given dedicated service to the people of Lancashire throughout his twelve years on the council. Former council leader Philippa Williamson said working alongside him had been an absolute joy, and David R Smith OBE, chairman of the Lancashire Partnership Against Crime, recalled his lively sense of humour and professionalism as a senior investigating officer.

His funeral was arranged for 11am on Tuesday 17 November 2026 at St Andrew's Church, Longton, with family flowers only and donations invited to St Catherine's Hospice.

Graham Gooch was born in Woodford, Essex, in 1950. He began his public service in the Royal Air Force in the late 1960s. His son Simon said the RAF days were short-lived, recalling his father's joke that planes could not land themselves and neither could he. After a brief spell working on the buses, Gooch joined the Metropolitan Police in 1971.

Gooch served for twenty years with the Metropolitan Police. He was involved in the response to the Iranian Embassy siege, the Brixton riots and the IRA bombing of Harrods, which killed three of his colleagues. He rose to Detective Chief Inspector and worked with fraud investigators on major cases including the inquiry into the takeover of the House of Fraser group, which took him to Pakistan, Germany, Egypt and Switzerland.

In 1991 he was promoted and transferred to Lancashire Constabulary, where he became Detective Chief Superintendent and one of the force's senior investigating officers. He led the investigation into the Morecambe garage murders of 1995 and the unsolved 1996 murder of Janet Murgatroyd beside the River Ribble, worked on kidnap and serious crime cases, and was picked by the Police Complaints Authority to lead the investigation into Merseyside Police's handling of the Eddie Gilfoyle conviction.

While still serving he studied at the Harris Law School, gaining a law degree and then a master's. He retired from the police at 51 after thirty years of service and became a lecturer at the University of Central Lancashire, where he led the new professional policing degree.

Gooch became a member and later chair of Longton Parish Council. After losing a county council by-election in 2013, he won South Ribble West for the Conservatives later that year and held the seat until 2025. From 2017 to 2025 he was Cabinet Member for Adult Services and Adult Social Care, and he served on many committees including the Health Scrutiny Committee, the Pension Fund Committee and the Lancashire Health and Wellbeing Board. He also represented the county council on the board of the Lancashire Partnership Against Crime.

Gooch lived in Longton, near Preston. He was married to Susan for 47 years and they had three children, including his son Simon, and three grandchildren. He was a keen historian who counted Kipling, Churchill and T. E. Lawrence among his favourite writers and Lawrence of Arabia as his favourite film. He supported Preston North End and was a member of the Campaign for Real Ale from its early days, often taking ale at the Black Bull in Longton and The Moorbrook in Preston.

Gooch's career spanned some of the best known events in London policing of the 1980s and major murder inquiries in Lancashire in the 1990s. The professional policing degree he led at the University of Central Lancashire has since been taken by thousands of students heading into police and law enforcement careers. As cabinet member he oversaw the improvement of Lancashire's adult social care services, an award during the pandemic for the Lancashire care capacity tracker, and the opening of the Bowgreave Rise facility in Garstang for people with physical disabilities and dementia.