Paul Simon sings 'The Sound of Silence' at Sandy Hook heroine's funeral

Paul Simon (Getty Images)

Paul Simon performed heart-rending ballad “The Sound Of Silence” at the funeral of a teacher who died at the Sandy Hook Elementary school shooting last Friday.

Victoria Soto, 27, was a first-grade teacher who died while shielding her pupils from gun fire during a massacre which left 20 children aged six and seven and another five adult women dead.

Simon’s 1966 hit with Art Garfunkel is understood to have been Miss Soto’s  favourite song. He performed it in front of around 400 mourners at a her local church.

The singer knows the Soto family through his nurse sister-in-law.

He performed accompanied by acoustic guitar halfway through Wednesday’s funeral at Lordship Community Church, Stratford without making a comment.

Soto was hailed as the heroine of Sandy Hook after she hid her pupils in a cupboard when gunman Adam Lanza burst into her classroom. The children survived, she did not.