Friend of the policewoman who was shot Yvonne Fletcher After years of seeking “justice” for his former colleague, he emotionally described how he still suffered a “nightmare” because of her being killed.
Providing evidence High court exist London The 66-year-old retired police officer John Murray tearfully recalled the aftermath of Pc Fletcher’s shooting while overseeing the protest against the colonel. Muammar Gaddafi Outside the Embassy of Libya in Saint James square April 17, 1984 in central London.
Mr. Murray from Chingford, east London, is filing a civil claim for the death of Pc Fletcher, former Gaddafi assistant Saleh Ibrahim Mabrouk, for a nominal amount of £1.
His barrister, Phillippa Kaufmann QC, stated in a written submission that the claim for assault and assault was against Mr. Mabrouk, which was allegedly part of the decision to use armed violence against protesters in the incident 37 years ago.
Mr. Mabrouk did not shoot in the incident because he was arrested earlier, after which he denied any wrongdoing and did not participate in the proceedings of the High Court.
When testifying at the Royal Court of Justice in London on Thursday, Mr. Murray described how he promised the dying police officer Fletcher that he would find out who shot her and why.
He told the court that this was “the last word she heard on this earth.”
After being injured, Mr. Murray took Pc Fletcher to the hospital in an ambulance, and later had to attend her autopsy.
When describing the “difficult” experience, he recalled seeing her body in the morgue and how he felt it was “too late” to “help her” now.
“I want to do something, but I can’t do it,” he said.
He told the court that he would still “have nightmares”, “nightmares”, “cold sweat” and “flashbacks” in the shooting, but was forced to seek “justice” for his friends.
“I see Yvonne almost every day,” he said.
“I know she is with me. I know.
“She is one of my best friends.”
“I will always think about it, I think it will never disappear, maybe because I don’t want it to disappear,” he said, adding: “What happened to her shouldn’t have happened.
“Someone must be responsible for what happened that day.”
The court was informed that Mr. Murray and Mr. Pc Fletcher had worked together in community policing in the Covent Garden area of central London for three or four years.
Mr. Murray described how he and Pc Fletcher initially did not participate in the demonstration, but were cancelled for another duty that morning to replace two police officers who were unable to participate.
He said that the embassy’s demonstrations “behaved very well at the beginning”, officials talked to the protesters, and Mr. Murray and Fletcher rotated positions in the morning.
However, when he turned his back to the embassy, he heard a “bang” and saw Fletcher fall to the ground, and then he was “silent”.
In a statement he issued in the ward shortly after the shooting, Mr. Murray described hearing “like firecrackers on Chinese New Year” and seeing people in the crowd jumping to the ground.
He heard Pc Fletcher yelling, saw her clutching her abdomen on her left side, and later saw blood “pumping” from the wound.
Mr. Murray told the court that Pc Fletcher’s death was a “very, very dark period” and how he “failed to the ground”.
He recalled taking the subway home after the incident. He “stomached” and heard two women talking about the shooting of a policeman.
“I don’t feel well, I want to shout to them that she is dead, but I don’t,” he said.
He explained how he “blame” himself, and he felt “as far as I was concerned, she died in place of me”.
He said: “If I change positions with her again, it will be me,” he added: “If I was shot, I might still be alive, she was shot, she died.”
“I really came to take care of her,” he said.
In the written opinion, Ms. Kaufman elaborated on the evidence that the shot was fired from the embassy window.
Ms. Kaufman said that witnesses allegedly saw a gun barrel and a cloud of smoke in a window on the first floor of the embassy, and later found a used 9mm cartridge case, gun remnants and firearms.
She said that in 2019, Mr. Mabrouk was “excluded” from the UK for “suspicion of involvement in war crimes and crimes against humanity”.
Ms. Kaufman said that he denied involvement in “any form of terrorist violence” and pointed out that Libya had previously admitted responsibility to Fletcher’s mother and paid compensation.
The hearing before Judge Martin Spencer continues.
