I cradled PC Yvonne Fletcher in my hands as she died & vowed to get her justice – I’m still fighting, says Met cop
MORE than a thousand of PC Yvonne Fletcher’s former colleagues today paid an emotional tribute to her – and demanded justice for her murder.
The ex-Met officers attended a ceremony for 25-year-old Yvonne to mark the 40th anniversary of her shooting outside the former Libyan People’s Bureau in St James’s Square, Central London.
She died after being hit by a bullet fired by an automatic weapon from a first-floor window into a crowd of anti-Gaddafi demonstrators on 17 April 1984.
Female police colleagues of Yvonne carried her photo behind a lone bagpiper into the square before prayers were said at her memorial stone and white doves released into the air at the privately organised event.
Nobody has ever been charged with Yvonne’s murder and her close friend and colleague John Murray was applauded as he pledged to keep on fighting for justice.
Mr Murray, 68, said: “I cradled Yvonne’s head in my hands and I promised her that one day I would get justice for her. I’m still fighting for it.”
Former Libyan minister Saleh Ibrahim Mabrouk – secretly given asylum in Britain in 2011 after previously being deported as a terrorist suspect – was arrested over Yvonne’s murder in 2015.
He was in police custody at the time she was shot but is suspected of organising the indiscriminate firing into crowds and at police on orders from mad dog dictator Colonel Gaddafi.
But the British Government blocked the prosecution of Dr Mabrouk in 2017 because of unspecified grounds of national security.
Ex-Pc Murray sued Dr Mabrouk in the High Court in 2021 for assault and battery over injuries he and others sustained.
He is now taking out a private prosecution against Dr Mabrouk, who is living back in Libya again.
Mr Murray, who is crowd-funding his private prosecution, said: “Let’s wash this stain from the dirty British justice system, because that’s what it is.”
Met Commissioner Sir Mark Rowley earlier visited Yvonne’s memorial stone with Assistant Commissioner Matt Jukes, head of counter-terror policing in the UK.
Sir Mark said Yvonne was “callously murdered” while “simply doing her job, policing protest, not unlike what many officers do so often today.”
I promised her that one day I would get justice for her. I’m still fighting for it.
John Murray
He added: “She had her whole career and her whole life ahead of her.”
Yvonne’s family, from Wiltshire, marked the anniversary in private.
They released a statement saying: “Yvonne was just doing her job policing another demonstration when she was tragically killed in St James’s Square.
“Over the years Yvonne has always been in our thoughts along with all those affected on that fateful day.”
The Met said there are currently no active lines of inquiry over Yvonne’s murder and conceded the likelihood of finding further evidence remains low – but said the file would remain open.
Contributions towards the private prosecution of the man suspected of ordering the shooting which led to Yvonne’s death, can be made here.