Page 137 - Once a copper 10 03 2020

Retired Detective Chief Supt Mick Treble recalled: “It was the most terrifying
experience I had in my police career. The intensity, the anger, the violence
shown by Leeds fans was something else. They were throwing coins at us,
officers were getting slashed over the face when they hit.

“But we all knew we had to stand firm and hold the line.”

Former mounted branch officer Doug Smith was in action, too, on his horse
Lochinvar during the infamous pitch riot.

“It was testing for both of us,” he said. “I’d been trained. So had Lochinvar.
But I wondered if the pair of us would make it out together. The trouble starts
and you forget everything except breaking up the crowds and keeping them
moving.

“A horse in a riot, don’t forget, is the nearest thing to a tank you can find.”

Ian was fatally injured when police pushed the Leeds fans away from the
pitch and the wall collapsed under the pressure of the crowd.

The Mereway
Upper School pupil
and four friends
had been standing
at the end of the
ground reserved
for Leeds
supporters. After
Blues scored their
winning goal, fans
began fighting
and the boys were
split up.

It was only when
Ian failed to return Figure 58 Railings broken and cars destroyed by falling rubble following the Birmingham v
Leeds riots in 1985
to Northampton
that his parents realised something was wrong and called the police.
In total 145 policemen were injured, and 125 fans were arrested. Forty fans
were treated at East Birmingham Hospital and a dozen at Birmingham
Accident Hospital.

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