Tuesday 17th April 1984 was ‘No Ordinary Day’

On the morning of Tuesday 17th April 1984 John Murray had arranged to meet up with Yvonne in the canteen at Bow Street Police Station at 8am to discuss the day's duties. However, he met her on the stairs as he came out of the locker room. They chatted and made their way towards the canteen. They were seen by the Duties Sergeant, John Walters, who shouted to them from the window of his portakabin office positioned in the police station yard. Back then the Duties Sergeant held an important position at the station, he decided who and where officers patrolled, which officers were on foot and which were allocated to the cars and the office. He would approve or deny annual leave when officers applied for it, he would decide who would be given the opportunity to work overtime. As a result officers would keep the Duties Sergeant ‘onside’ so he would review favourably any requests relating to work.

Sgt Walters requested John and Yvonne to attend a demonstration outside the Libyan Embassy in St James Square, explaining that he was two officers short for that particular work detail. They duly agreed and went off to join Sgt Littlewood and six other officers to police the demonstration. They were assured it would be a detail of around a couple of hours and they would be back to continue their planned duties. But Sgt Littlewood had been delayed in traffic and as she hurried up the steps to the Police Station she met Sgt Howard Turner. He offered to take her place at the demonstration if she took on the role as custody sergeant, all agreed.

Sgt Turner and the other officers, including John, Yvonne and her fiance, Mick, stepped into a police van to take them to St James Square. The demonstrations outside the Libyan Embassy couldn’t be described as regular but they weren’t unusual. They were always noisy but generally well behaved gatherings of pro and anti Gaddafi supporters and protesters. That day was not expected to be any different. The Police had made the decision to erect barriers in the square to separate the two factions and avoid any potential for disorder.

Earlier that morning when the barriers were being placed in the square and the parking meters were being covered with ‘hoods’ to prevent any vehicles parking in the square, it had alerted the Libyans in the Embassy to the fact there was to be a protest. Witnesses in the offices around the square had noticed Libyan men going to the Embassy via the front door. They were carrying, it was believed, stakes and placards to wave in protest. There was no reason to believe the items being taken into the Embassy were anything other than that. The police in the square were spoken to by occupants of the other offices but they’d seen it all before.
One of the Libyans, went out to speak to the police officers already in position and securing the barriers. He told the officers to take the barriers away but they declined on the basis this was for the security and safety of the demonstrators. But this individual persisted and became very angry. Another Libyan from the Embassy went into the street, this was Saleh Ibrahim Mabrouk, who held a senior post in the Embassy, he joined in the argument, he too wanted the barriers removed. Mabrouk had not had any prior warning there was to be a protest, which was the usual procedure, as soon as the Police knew there was to be a protest they would inform the Embassy but on this occasion the Police had decided not to inform the Libyans of the imminent gathering. To prevent further unpleasantness and potential escalation in disorder, Mabrouk was arrested, and conveyed to the police station.


Meanwhile, Yvonne and the other officers were transported to St James Square. They arrived and spread out in the road in front of No5, the Libyan Embassy. The roadway was empty apart from the line of officers. On both sides of the road were barriers. The people within the square consisted of the anti Gaddafi protesters opposite the Embassy, their backs to the park and the pro Gaddafi supporters. They unusually stood, not outside the Embassy, but Duke of York Street and Charles II Street. The barriers were to prevent the two factions meeting, who could hurl noisy exchanges and little else.

And so the scene was set, it was about 10am by this time. The sun shone, the sky was blue, it was pleasantly warm on that Spring day. But the air was filled with the noise of the shouts of the protesters and supporters. Insp. Fish was in the square intending to walk among the officers standing in front of the Embassy. Yvonne was there and John was beside her, they had chatted to the crowd and with each other.

Insp Fish looked up at the open windows on the first floor of the Embassy, what did he see? No….no…..no, surely not….a gun barrel and within a split second automatic gunfire rang out. The pro Gaddafi supporters ran immediately but the rest, the police, the protesters, and the media looked baffled. What had they just heard? A firework or a firecracker?

Then the screaming started, some of the anti Gaddafi protesters had been hit by gunfire and had fallen to the floor. Then amongst all of this, Yvonne had fallen to the floor, she too had been shot. She writhed in pain and her colleagues close by came to her aid including John Murray. Yvonne’s uniform hat had fallen to the floor, the assisting officers discarded their helmets as they bent down to assist their stricken friend. Initially, John didn’t want to move her until the extent of her injuries were known but Insp. Fish instructed everyone to evacuate the square to prevent further injuries should the firing start again. Yvonne was carried into the side street and eventually into an ambulance. A couple of the injured protesters were also put into the ambulance.