Page 123 - Once a copper 10 03 2020

Getting television programmes commissioned can be a tortuous process but,
in this case, ITV gave the project the
green light almost immediately.

A former colleague and friend of Yvonne
Fletcher, John Murray was standing just
feet away from her in St James Square
when she was shot. He was the first to
person to come to her aid.

“I put my hands under her head and
cradled her. The most striking thing was Figure 54 PC Murray cradling the body of his dying
the complete silence afterwards. There friend
was no noise whatsoever.”

Murray’s interview would provide the emotional backbone to the
programme, articulating the hurt felt by many close to Yvonne Fletcher.

“One of the first things I said to myself was why her and not me?” he said.

“But I just could not believe it. It didn’t happen in central London. It didn’t
happen at demonstrations. It had never happened before.

Tom Stone tracked down one of the organisers of the anti Gaddafi protest in
1984. Guma el-Gamaty who recalled how he was called to a clandestine
meeting the night before the shooting. Two students from the anti Gaddafi
movement were working undercover in the Libyan embassy. One 'spy’
contacted Mr. el-Gamaty to warn that there could be violence.

“We met at midnight underneath a bridge by the River Thames. He told me
to be careful because they are planning something big for you. There might
be fighting.”
But the most intriguing eye witness account was that of Linda Kells. On the
morning of the murder, she was working in number three St James Square,
opposite the Libyan embassy. In the minutes before the shooting, she
believed she saw a man at the window of the Libyan embassy from which
shots were fired. She told the police in 1984 that she was confident that she
could identify him.

Ms. Kells, not only agreed to an interview, but examined the photographs of
the Libyans identified by the police as “significant parties” She singled out
two men as candidates for the man she saw at the window.

Buoyed by this minor breakthrough, Tom Stone contacted the former Home
Secretary, Lord Brittan. With the Prime Minister, Margaret Thatcher abroad, he
was responsible for the government’s response to the murder. It was a bad Page123
time to be left in charge. In the aftermath of the shooting, the police had