Keith Henry Blakelock

QGM The King's Gallantry Medal (KGM) is a United Kingdom decoration awarded for exemplary acts of courage, bravery where the services were not so outstanding as to merit the George Medal, but above the level required for the King's Commendation for ...

, a London

Metropolitan Police The Metropolitan Police Service (MPS), formerly and still commonly known as the Metropolitan Police (and informally as the Met Police, the Met, Scotland Yard, or the Yard), is the territorial police force responsible for law enforcement and ...

constable, was murdered on 6 October 1985 during rioting at the

Broadwater Farm Broadwater Farm, often referred to simply as "The Farm", is an area in Tottenham, North London, straddling the River Moselle (London), River Moselle. The eastern half of the area is dominated by the Broadwater Farm Housing estate, Estate ("BWFE") ...

housing estate in

Tottenham Tottenham () is a town in North London, England, within the London Borough of Haringey. It is located in the ceremonial county of Greater London. Tottenham is centred north-northeast of Charing Cross, bordering Edmonton to the north, Waltham ...

, north London. The riot broke out after Cynthia Jarrett died of heart failure during a police search of her home, and took place against a backdrop of unrest in several English cities and a breakdown of relations between the police and some people in the Black community.. PC Blakelock had been assigned, on the night of his death, to Serial 502, a unit of 11 constables and one sergeant, dispatched to protect firefighters who were themselves under attack. When the rioters forced the officers back, Blakelock stumbled and fell. Surrounded by a mob of around 50 people, he received over 40 injuries inflicted by

machete Older machete from Latin America Gerber machete/saw combo Agustín Cruz Tinoco of San Agustín de las Juntas, Oaxaca">San_Agustín_de_las_Juntas.html" ;"title="Agustín Cruz Tinoco of San Agustín de las Juntas">Agustín Cruz Tinoco of San ...

s or similar weapons, and was found with a six-inch-long knife in his neck, buried up to the hilt. He was the third officer to be killed in a riot in the London area. The first occurred in 1833, when PC Robert Culley was stabbed to death in the

Coldbath Fields riot The Coldbath Fields riot took place in Clerkenwell, London, on 13 May 1833. The riot occurred as the Metropolitan Police attempted to break up a meeting of the National Union of the Working Classes (NUWC). Figures for the number of police p ...

, Monday, 13 May 1833, found by the jury to be justifiable homicide. The second occurred in 1919, when Station Sergeant Thomas Green was struck with a metal bar in the

Epsom riot The Epsom riot occurred when about 400 Canadian soldiers rioted and attacked the police station in Epsom, Surrey on 17 June 1919, resulting in the death of Station-Sergeant Thomas Green, a British police officer, who died of his injuries the f ...

. Detectives came under enormous pressure to find those responsible. Faced with a lack of scientific evidence—because for several hours it had not been possible to secure the crime scene—police officers arrested 359 people, interviewed most of them without lawyers, and laid charges based on untaped confessions. Three adults and three youths were charged with the murder; the adults,

Winston Silcott Winston Silcott (born 1959),Winston Silcott: An infamous past
(

scientific testing cast doubt on the authenticity of detectives' notes of an interview in which Silcott appeared to incriminate himself. Two detectives were charged in 1992 with

perverting the course of justice Perverting the course of justice is an offence committed when a person prevents justice from being served on themselves or on another party. In England and Wales it is a common law offence, carrying a maximum sentence of life imprisonment. Statu ...

and were acquitted in 1994. Police re-opened the murder inquiry in 1992 and again in 2003. Ten men were arrested in 2010 on suspicion of murder, and in 2013 one of them, Nicholas Jacobs, became the seventh person to be charged with Blakelock's murder, based largely on evidence gathered during the 1992 inquiry. He was found not guilty in April 2014.Barrett, David (9 April 2014)
"PC Keith Blakelock murder trial: Nicky Jacobs found not guilty"
''The Daily Telegraph'', 9 April 2014. Barling, Kurt (9 April 2014)
"PC Blakelock murder trial: Why did the latest case fail?"
BBC News, 9 April 2014. Blakelock and the other constables of Serial 502 were awarded the

Queen's Gallantry Medal The Queen's Gallantry Medal (QGM) is a United Kingdom decoration awarded for exemplary acts of bravery where the services were not so outstanding as to merit the George Medal, but above the level required for the Queen's Commendation for Braver ...

for bravery in 1988. Their sergeant, David Pengelly, who—armed only with a shield and truncheon—placed himself in front of the crowd in an effort to save Blakelock and another officer, received the

George Medal The George Medal (GM), instituted on 24 September 1940 by King George VI,''British Gallantry Medals'' (Abbott and Tamplin), p. 138 is a decoration of the United Kingdom and Commonwealth, awarded for gallantry, typically by civilians, or in circ ...

, awarded for acts of great bravery.

Background

Keith Blakelock

Keith Henry Blakelock was born on 28 June 1945 in

Sunderland Sunderland () is a port city in Tyne and Wear, England. It is the City of Sunderland's administrative centre and in the Historic counties of England, historic county of County of Durham, Durham. The city is from Newcastle-upon-Tyne and is on t ...

. He joined the Metropolitan Police on 14 November 1980, and was assigned to a response team in

Hornsey Hornsey is a district of north London, England in the London Borough of Haringey The London Borough of Haringey (pronounced , same as Harringay) is a London borough in North London, classified by some definitions as part of Inner Lo ...

before becoming a home beat officer in

Muswell Hill Muswell Hill is a suburban district of the London Borough of Haringey, north London. The hill, which reaches over above sea level, is situated north of Charing Cross. Neighbouring areas include Highgate, Hampstead Garden Suburb, East Finchl ...

, north London. At the time of his death, he was married to Elizabeth Blakelock (later Johnson), with three sons, Mark, Kevin and Lee. Lee Blakelock, eight years old when his father died, became a police officer himself, joining

Durham Constabulary Durham Constabulary is the territorial police force responsible for policing ceremonial county of County Durham in North East England. The force’s area is bordered by Cumbria Constabulary to the west, Cleveland Police to the south east, North ...

in 2000. PC Blakelock is buried in

East Finchley Cemetery East Finchley Cemetery is a cemetery and crematorium in East End Road, East Finchley. Although it is in the London Borough of Barnet, it is owned and managed by the City of Westminster.Broadwater Farm Broadwater Farm, often referred to simply as "The Farm", is an area in Tottenham, North London, straddling the River Moselle (London), River Moselle. The eastern half of the area is dominated by the Broadwater Farm Housing estate, Estate ("BWFE") ...

in Tottenham, in the Borough of Haringey, north London ( N17), emerged from the British government's policy from the 1930s onwards of

slum clearance Slum clearance, slum eviction or slum removal is an urban renewal strategy used to transform low income settlements with poor reputation into another type of development or housing. This has long been a strategy for redeveloping urban communities; ...

, in which poorly maintained

terraced house In architecture and city planning, a terrace or terraced house ( UK) or townhouse ( US) is a form of medium-density housing that originated in Europe in the 16th century, whereby a row of attached dwellings share side walls. In the United State ...

s were bulldozed to make way for high-rise

social housing Public housing is a form of housing tenure in which the property is usually owned by a government authority, either central or local. Although the common goal of public housing is to provide affordable housing, the details, terminology, def ...

. Built between 1967 and 1973, the Farm consists of 1,063 flats (apartments) in 12 blocks raised on stilts, linked by first-floor outdoor connecting walkways; no homes or shops were built at ground level for fear of flooding from the nearby

River Moselle The Moselle ( , ; german: Mosel ; lb, Musel ) is a river that rises in the Vosges mountains and flows through north-eastern France and Luxembourg to western Germany. It is a bank (geography), left bank tributary of the Rhine, which it jo ...

. At the time of Blakelock's death, the estate housed 3,400 people, 49 percent white, 43 percent African-Caribbean. Broadwater Farm, Tottenham, London, overview

Broadwater Farm, Tottenham, London, overview

British journalist David Rose writes that by 1976 the Farm was already seen as a

sink estate A sink estate is a British term used for a council housing estate with high levels of social problems, particularly crime. Origin The phrase came into usage in the 1980s, and was used by the Prime Minister, Tony Blair in 1998, when he referred to ...

, and that by 1980 a

Department of the Environment An environmental ministry is a national or subnational government agency politically responsible for the environment and/or natural resources. Various other names are commonly used to identify such agencies, such as Ministry of the Environment, ...

report had suggested demolition, although a regeneration project after the 1985 riots led to improvements. Sir

Kenneth Newman Sir Kenneth Leslie Newman (15 August 1926 – 4 February 2017) was a senior British police officer. He was Chief Constable of the Royal Ulster Constabulary (RUC) from 1976 to 1980, and Commissioner of the Metropolitan Police from 1982 to 1987 ...

Metropolitan Police Commissioner The Commissioner of Police of the Metropolis is the head of London's Metropolitan Police Service. Sir Mark Rowley was appointed to the post on 8 July 2022 after Dame Cressida Dick announced her resignation in February. The rank of Commissione ...

from 1982 to 1987, regarded the estate as one of London's " symbolic locations", or potential no-go areas, along with

Railton Road Railton Road runs between Brixton and Herne Hill in the London Borough of Lambeth. The road is designated the B223. At the northern end of Railton Road it becomes Atlantic Road, linking to Brixton Road at a junction where the Brixton tube stat ...

Brixton Brixton is a district in south London, part of the London Borough of Lambeth, England. The area is identified in the London Plan as one of 35 major centres in Greater London. Brixton experienced a rapid rise in population during the 19th ce ...

;

All Saints Road All Saints Road is a street in London's Notting Hill district, best known as being an important centre for the UK's Afro-Caribbean community. It runs north to south from Tavistock Crescent to Westbourne Park Road, and has junctions with Tavist ...

Notting Hill Notting Hill is a district of West London, England, in the Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea. Notting Hill is known for being a cosmopolitan and multicultural neighbourhood, hosting the annual Notting Hill Carnival and Portobello Road M ...

; the

Notting Hill Carnival The Notting Hill Carnival is an annual Caribbean festival event that has taken place in London since 1966

; and the Stonebridge Estate in

Harlesden Harlesden is a district in the London Borough of Brent, North West London. Located north of the Grand Union Canal and Wormwood Scrubs, the Harrow Road flows through the centre of the area which goes eastwards to Central London and west towards ...

. The 1986 Gifford Inquiry into the rioting criticized the police for having adopted this attitude. The

Royal Institute of British Architects The Royal Institute of British Architects (RIBA) is a professional body for architects primarily in the United Kingdom, but also internationally, founded for the advancement of architecture under its royal charter granted in 1837, three suppl ...

blamed the unrest on

Haringey Council Haringey London Borough Council is the local authority for the London Borough of Haringey in Greater London, England. It is a London borough council, one of 32 in the United Kingdom capital of London. As of 2022, Haringey is divided into 21 wards, ...

's policy of "using the estate as a gathering ground for its problem tenants", combined with low rents that left no funds for adequate maintenance. The elevated linked walkways meant that the estate could be crossed without descending to street level. Combined with the ground-level parking spaces beloved of drug dealers, these had turned the estate into what commentators called a "rabbit warren" for criminals, to the point where residents were afraid to leave their homes. From May 1985 police entering the estate regularly faced lumps of concrete, bricks, bottles and beer barrels being thrown at them from the first-floor walkways. Dutch architectural historian Wouter Vanstiphout described the estate as it was at the time of the riots:

Social unrest across England

The riots in which Blakelock died took place within a wave of social unrest across England. Since the

1980 St. Pauls riot The St Pauls riot occurred in St Pauls, Bristol, England on 2 April 1980 when police raided the Black and White Café on Grosvenor Road in the heart of the area. After several hours of disturbance in which fire engines and police cars were damag ...

in Bristol, and particularly since the

1981 Brixton riot The 1981 Brixton riot, or Brixton uprising, was a series of clashes between mainly black youths and the Metropolitan Police in Brixton, London, between 10 and 12 April 1981.J. A. Cloake & M. R. Tudor. ''Multicultural Britain''. Oxford Unive ...

in south London, a series of incidents had sparked violent confrontations between black youths and largely white police officers. On 9 September 1985, a month before Blakelock's murder, the arrest of a black man for a traffic offence triggered the

1985 Handsworth riots The second Handsworth riots took place in the Handsworth district of Birmingham, West Midlands, from 9 to 11 September 1985. The riots were reportedly sparked by the arrest of a man near the Acapulco Cafe, Lozells and a police raid on the ''Vil ...

in Birmingham; two people were killed. On 28 September, a black woman, Dorothy "Cherry" Groce, was accidentally shot by police while they searched her home in

looking for her son, Michael Groce, who was wanted on suspicion of robbery and firearms offences. Believing she had died in the shooting—in fact, she had survived but was left paralysed from the waist down—a group of protesters gathered outside Brixton police station, sparking the 1985 Brixton riot that saw police lose control of the area for 48 hours. A photojournalist, 29-year-old David Hodge, was killed when a

breeze block A concrete masonry unit (CMU) is a standard-size rectangular block used in building construction. CMUs are some of the most versatile building products available because of the wide variety of appearances that can be achieved using them. Tho ...

was dropped on his head while he photographed the looting. Rumours spread throughout London at the end of September 1985 that more rioting was imminent, including in

Bermondsey Bermondsey () is a district in southeast London, part of the London Borough of Southwark, England, southeast of Charing Cross. To the west of Bermondsey lies Southwark, to the east Rotherhithe and Deptford, to the south Walworth and Peckham, a ...

and the Wood Green shopping centre near Broadwater Farm. On 1 October there were disturbances in

Toxteth Toxteth is an inner-city area of Liverpool in the historic county of Lancashire and the ceremonial county of Merseyside. Toxteth is located to the south of Liverpool city centre, bordered by Aigburth, Canning, Dingle, and Edge Hill. The area w ...

, Liverpool. The police searched all vehicles entering Broadwater Farm that day; the following day they found a petrol bomb on the estate.

(October 1985) Broadwater Farm riot

(5 October) Death of Cynthia Jarrett

At 1:00 pm on 5 October 1985, a young

black Black is a color which results from the absence or complete absorption of visible light. It is an achromatic color, without hue, like white and grey. It is often used symbolically or figuratively to represent darkness. Black and white have o ...

man, Floyd Jarrett, who lived about a mile from

, was falsely arrested by

police The police are a constituted body of persons empowered by a state, with the aim to enforce the law, to ensure the safety, health and possessions of citizens, and to prevent crime and civil disorder. Their lawful powers include arrest and t ...

, having been stopped in a vehicle with an allegedly suspicious car tax disc, on suspicion of being in a stolen car. It was a suspicion that turned out to be groundless, but a decision was made several hours later to search the home of his mother, Cynthia Jarrett, for stolen goods. In the course of the search, she collapsed and died of heart failure. David Rose, a British author and investigative journalist, writes that the pathologist,

Walter Somerville Walter Somerville CBE (1913–2005) was an Irish cardiologist who played a leading role in heart surgery at London's Middlesex and Harefield hospitals. For twenty years, Somerville was editor of the British Heart Journal. Early life and educ ...

, told the inquest that Mrs. Jarrett had a heart condition that meant she probably only had months to live. The police, without a search warrant, had let themselves into the house using Floyd Jarrett's keys, without knocking or announcing themselves, while his mother and her family were watching television. The family said that an officer had pushed 49-year-old Mrs. Jarrett, causing her to fall. The officer denied this; the police said she had simply collapsed. When it became clear she had stopped breathing, the same officer tried to revive her using mouth-to-mouth resuscitation, to no avail. The pathologist testified at the inquest that the fall may have been a precipitating factor; the jury returned a verdict of accidental death, following the coroner's direction that such a verdict would mean Mrs. Jarrett had been pushed, but perhaps accidentally.

(6 October) Rioting breaks out

According to Rose, Cynthia Jarrett's death was "not just a spark but ... a flamethrower aimed at a powder keg". Protesters began to gather outside Tottenham police station, a few hundred yards from Broadwater Farm, around 1:30 am on Sunday morning, 6 October. Four of the station's windows were smashed, but the Jarrett family asked the crowd to disperse. Later that day, two police officers were attacked with bricks and paving stones at the Farm, and a police inspector was attacked in his car. The next few hours saw some of the most violent rioting the country had experienced. By early evening a crowd of 500 mostly young black men had gathered on the estate, setting fire to cars, throwing petrol bombs and bricks, and dropping concrete blocks and paving stones from the estate's outdoor walkways, knocking several police officers unconscious, despite their NATO helmets.. The local council's community relations officer said there was a "shifting convoy of ambulances: as soon as one was loaded up with injured officers, another would move up to take its place". Four senior officers were in control of police deployment in the area that night: Chief Superintendent Colin Couch, who was the Tottenham Division Chief, Chief Superintendent David French, Superintendent William Sinclair, and Chief Inspector John Hambleton. Apart from Blakelock's death, 250 police officers were injured, and two policemen and three journalists—one from the Press Association and two from the BBC—suffered gunshot wounds. At least 30 shots were fired from three firearms, the first time shots had been fired by rioters in Britain. At 9:45 pm the Metropolitan Police Commissioner, Sir Kenneth Newman, authorized the deployment of specialist police armed with

plastic bullet A plastic bullet or plastic baton round (PBR) is a non-lethal projectile fired from a specialised gun. Although designed as a non-lethal weapon, they have caused a number of deaths when used incorrectly. Plastic bullets are generally used for ...

s and

CS gas The compound 2-chlorobenzalmalononitrile (also called ''o''-chlorobenzylidene malononitrile; chemical formula: C10H5ClN2), a cyanocarbon, is the defining component of tear gas commonly referred to as CS gas, which is used as a riot control agent ...

to be used "as a last resort should all else fail"; it would have been the first use of plastic bullets during a riot in Britain. The unit arrived at 10:20 pm, but the senior officers at the scene refused to use them, apparently to the dismay of junior officers. The rioting continued until the early hours of the morning.

Serial 502

Tangmere and Willan Road, Broadwater Farm Estate

Blakelock was assigned on the night to Serial 502, a Metropolitan police unit consisting of a sergeant and 11 constables from Hornsey and Wood Green police stations."Interview with Dave Pengelly", BBC Crimewatch, 26 October 2010. A "shield serial" was a unit equipped with shields, NATO helmets and a personnel carrier; expecting trouble, the Metropolitan Police had increased the deployment of these patrols across the capital. Serial 502 consisted of three Scots, three Londoners (including an officer originally from Jamaica), and officers from Cumbria, Gloucestershire, Merseyside, Sunderland, and Yorkshire. They arrived at the estate's Gloucester Road entrance in their

Sherpa Sherpa may refer to: Ethnography * Sherpa people, an ethnic group in north eastern Nepal * Sherpa language Organizations and companies * Sherpa (association), a French network of jurists dedicated to promoting corporate social responsibility * ...

van at around 7:45 pm, armed with truncheons and shields: three long

riot shield A riot shield is a lightweight protection device, typically deployed by police and some military organizations, though also utilized by protestors. Riot shields are typically long enough to cover an average-sized person from the top of the head to ...

s and six round ones. At 9:30 pm Sgt David Pengelly led the unit onto the estate to protect firefighters who had earlier attended a supermarket fire in the Tangmere block but had been forced out."Tottenham riot reminds north London of Broadwater Farm riot in 1985"
''The Daily Telegraph'', 7 August 2011. Tangmere had been built as a

ziggurat A ziggurat (; Cuneiform: 𒅆𒂍𒉪, Akkadian: ', D-stem of ' 'to protrude, to build high', cognate with other Semitic languages like Hebrew ''zaqar'' (זָקַר) 'protrude') is a type of massive structure built in ancient Mesopotamia. It has ...

(with successively receding levels) with a shopping precinct on a

mezzanine A mezzanine (; or in Italian language, Italian, a ''mezzanino'') is an intermediate floor in a building which is partly open to the double-height ceilinged floor below, or which does not extend over the whole floorspace of the building, a loft ...

, as well as flats with balconies. According to PC Richard Coombes, several men shouted from one of the balconies that the supermarket was on fire. He feared that it was a trap. The firefighters made their way back up an enclosed staircase inside Tangmere with Serial 502 behind them. Dozens of rioters suddenly appeared at the top of the stairs. Pengelly told them the police were helping firefighters put out a fire, then they would leave. Suddenly the rioters began blowing whistles, throwing bottles and hacking at the police shields with machetes. Pengelly ordered the officers and firefighters to retreat. They were forced to run backwards down the unlit narrow staircase, fearful of tripping over the fire hoses, which had been flat before but were now full of water."Interview with Richard Coombes". BBC ''Crimewatch'', 26 October 2010. PC Coombes, armed with just a short truncheon, recalled that the noise—"Kill the pigs!"—was deafening, and he could barely see through the scratched Perspex visor on his helmet.

Attack on Blakelock

"In total, 230 police officers were injured and one, PC Keith Blakelock, was killed"—''
The Daily Telegraph ''The Daily Telegraph'', known online and elsewhere as ''The Telegraph'', is a national British daily broadsheet newspaper published in London by Telegraph Media Group and distributed across the United Kingdom and internationally. It was fo ...
''

There were rioters at the bottom of the stairs too, wearing masks or crash helmets, and carrying knives, machetes, baseball bats, bricks, petrol bombs and paving stones. The bombs started exploding, the paving stones were thrown at the officers' helmets, and the riot shields were the only defence against the machetes. As the firefighters and police ran out of the stairwell toward a car park and a patch of grass, one of the firefighters, Divisional Fire Officer Trevor Stratford, saw that Blakelock had tripped: "He just stumbled and went down and they were upon him. It was just mob hysteria. ... There were about 50 people on him." The rioters removed Blakelock's protective helmet, which was never found. The pathologist, David Bowen, found 54 holes in Blakelock's overalls, and 40 stabbing or slashing injuries, eight of them to his head, caused by a weapon such as a machete, axe or sword. A six-inch-long knife was buried in his neck up to the hilt. His body was covered in marks from having been kicked or stamped on. His hands and arms were badly cut, and he had lost several fingers trying to defend himself. There were 14 stab wounds on his back, one on the back of his right thigh, and six on his face. Stabbing injuries to his armpits had penetrated his lungs. His head had been turned to one side and his jawbone smashed by a blow that left a six-inch gash across the right side of his head. Bowen said the force of this blow had been "almost as if to sever his head", which gave rise to the view that an attempt had been made to decapitate him. A second group surrounded PC Coombes, who sustained a five-inch-long cut to his face, had his neck slit open, and was left with broken upper and lower jaws. he was still suffering the effects of the attack, which the police regard as attempted murder, including constant pain, poor hearing and eyesight, epileptic fits, nightmares, and a memory so poor that he was left unable to read a book or drive.Craig, Olga (3 October 2004)
"'They butchered Keith Blakelock and they wanted to butcher me'"
''The Daily Telegraph''. A third constable, Michael Shepherd, was hit by an iron spike; Shepherd collapsed next to Coombes and placed his shield over him to protect Coombes from the crowd, who were kicking and hitting them both. Several officers and firefighters turned and ran back toward the crowd to try to save Blakelock and Coombes. Sergeant Pengelly, in charge of the serial, turned and ran at the mob, driving them off. Couch, Mr Stratford, and other officers ran back too and managed to pull PC Blakelock away, but by then he had sustained multiple stab wounds and within minutes the 40-year-old father of three was near death. Blakelock was taken by ambulance to the

North Middlesex Hospital North Middlesex University Hospital, known locally as North Mid, is a district general hospital in Edmonton in the London Borough of Enfield. The hospital is managed by North Middlesex University Hospital NHS Trust. History The hospital was e ...

but died on the way.. Coombes was taken to hospital by fire engine. Stratford was left with a spinal injury, and 19-year-old PC Maxwell Roberts had been stabbed. Pengelly said in 2010 that, when the other officers got back to the safety of their van, "We just sat there, numb with shock, and life was never the same again for any of us."

First investigation

Media response

Rose writes that there was a racist media frenzy after the killing, placing intense external pressure on detectives to solve the case. '' The Sun'' newspaper reportedly compared the Labour leader of Haringey Council and Labour's prospective candidate for Tottenham,

Bernie Grant Bernard Alexander Montgomery Grant (17 February 1944 – 8 April 2000) was a British Labour Party politician who was the Member of Parliament for Tottenham, London, from 1987 to his death in 2000. Biography Bernie Grant was born in Georgetow ...

—who had immigrated from Guyana in 1963—to an ape, writing that he had spoken to reporters while, in Rose's words, "peeling a banana and juggling an orange". Grant caused uproar with his comments after the killing. He told reporters that "the police got a bloody good hiding", and "Maybe it was a policeman who stabbed another policeman." Censured by

Neil Kinnock Neil Gordon Kinnock, Baron Kinnock (born 28 March 1942) is a British former politician. As a member of the Labour Party, he served as a Member of Parliament from 1970 until 1995, first for Bedwellty and then for Islwyn. He was the Leader of ...

, then Labour leader, Grant later described the violence as "inexcusable". The Metropolitan Police Commissioner,

, told reporters that groups of

Trotskyists Trotskyism is the political ideology and branch of Marxism developed by Ukrainian-Russian revolutionary Leon Trotsky and some other members of the Left Opposition and Fourth International. Trotsky self-identified as an orthodox Marxist, a rev ...

and

anarchists Anarchism is a political philosophy and movement that is skeptical of all justifications for authority and seeks to abolish the institutions it claims maintain unnecessary coercion and hierarchy, typically including, though not necessari ...

had orchestrated the violence, a theme picked up by the ''Daily Telegraph'' and others. Falling for a story from media hoaxer Rocky Ryan, the ''Daily Express'' reported on 8 October 1985 that a "Moscow-trained hit squad gave orders as mob hacked PC Blakelock to death", alleging that "crazed left-wing extremists" trained in Moscow and Libya had coordinated the riots. There was also internal pressure on detectives from the rank and file, who saw their superior officers as sharing the blame for Blakelock's death. The Police Federation's journal, ''Police'', argued that senior officers had pursued a policy at Broadwater Farm of avoiding confrontation at all costs, and that "community policing" had led to compromises with criminals, rather than a focus on upholding the law. As a result, the journal wrote, officers had failed to appreciate the seriousness of the situation that had developed on the estate.

Det Ch Supt Graham Melvin

Detective Chief Superintendent Graham Melvin of the Serious Crime Squad was placed in charge of the investigation a few hours after the killing, at 2:00 am on 7 October. With 150 officers assigned full-time, the inquiry became the largest in the history of the Metropolitan Police. Born in Halifax in 1941, Melvin had joined the Metropolitan Police in 1960, then the

Criminal Investigation Department The Criminal Investigation Department (CID) is the branch of a police force to which most plainclothes detectives belong in the United Kingdom and many Commonwealth nations. A force's CID is distinct from its Special Branch (though officers of b ...

. He had studied at

Bramshill Police College The Police Staff College, Bramshill, Bramshill House, Bramshill, (near Hook) Hampshire, England, was until 2015 the principal police staff training establishment in England and Wales. History The need for a training college for the police was ...

, served with the

Flying Squad The Flying Squad is a branch of the Serious and Organised Crime Command within London's Metropolitan Police Service. It is also known as the Robbery Squad, Specialist Crime Directorate 7, SC&O7 and SO7. It is nicknamed The Sweeney, an abbrevia ...

, and was known for having solved several notorious cases, including that of

Kenneth Erskine Kenneth Erskine (born 1 July 1963) is a British serial killer who became known as The Stockwell Strangler. He committed the murders of 7–11 senior citizens in London between April and July 1986. Early life Erskine was born in Hammersmith''The ...

, the Stockwell Strangler. He became a

detective chief superintendent Chief superintendent is a senior rank in police forces, especially in those organised on the British model. Rank insignia of chief superintendent File:Sa-police-chief-superintendent.png, South Australia Police File:RCMP Chief Superintendent.png ...

in March 1985, when he joined the elite International and Organised Crime Squad (SO1).Victor, Peter (31 July 1994)
"Silcott officer will return in triumph"
''The Independent on Sunday''.

Interviews

Melvin's first problem was that there was no forensic evidence. Senior officers had not allowed the estate to be sealed off immediately after the attack, which meant that the crime scene had not been secured. Witnesses and those directly involved had been allowed to leave without giving their names, and objects that might have held fingerprints had not been collected. Police had not been allowed into the estate in great numbers until 4 am on 7 October, by which time much of the evidence had disappeared. Whatever remained was removed during

's clean-up operation. Melvin therefore resorted to arresting suspects—including juveniles, some of them regarded as vulnerable—and holding them for days without access to lawyers.Pallister, David (19 March 1991)
"Relatives renew Tottenham Three case plea"
''The Guardian''. Of the 359 people arrested in 1985 and 1986 in connection with the riot, 94 were interviewed in the presence of a lawyer. Many of the confessions that resulted, whether directly about the murder, or about having taken part in the rioting, were made before the lawyer was given access to the interviewee, according to Rose. When people did confess to even a minor role in the rioting, such as throwing a few stones, they were charged with

affray In many legal jurisdictions related to English common law, affray is a public order offence consisting of the fighting of one or more persons in a public place to the terror (in french: à l'effroi) of ordinary people. Depending on their act ...

. One resident told the 1986 Gifford Inquiry into the rioting: "You would go to bed and you would just lie there and you would think, are they going to come and kick my door, what's going to happen to my children? ... It was that horrible fear that you lived with day by day, knowing they could come and kick down your door and hold you for hours." The inquiry heard that 9,165 police officers were either deployed on the estate or held in reserve between 10 and 14 October 1985. Thus, argues Rose, the police created, or at least intensified, a climate of fear in which witnesses were afraid to step forward. Melvin defended his decision to hold people without access to legal advice by arguing that lawyers, unwittingly or otherwise, might pass information they had gleaned during interviews to other suspects. He said under cross-examination during the 1987 murder trial that, in his view, "the integrity of some firms of solicitors left a lot to be desired"; he believed solicitors were being retained by people who had an interest in learning what other suspects had said. The Crown prosecutor, Roy Amlot QC, told the court during the first trial that the police had one effective weapon, namely that suspects did not know who else had spoken to police and what they had said, and that "the use of that weapon by the police was legitimate and effective".

(1985–1986) Murder charges

Mark Pennant

Mark Pennant, aged 15, was arrested on 9 October 1985 and charged with murder two days later, the first to be charged. Born in England to West-Indian parents, Pennant had been raised in the

West Indies The West Indies is a subregion of North America, surrounded by the North Atlantic Ocean and the Caribbean Sea that includes 13 independent island countries and 18 dependencies and other territories in three major archipelagos: the Greater A ...

until he was nine, after which he returned to the UK; he was diagnosed with learning difficulties and was attending a special school. Arrested and handcuffed at school, he was taken to Wood Green Police Station and interviewed six times over the course of two days, with a teacher in attendance. His mother was not told that he had been taken into custody, and the police reportedly told him that she had refused to help him. He told the police that he had cut Blakelock and kicked him twice, and he named Winston Silcott as the ringleader, and several others, including another juvenile, Mark Lambie. When charged with the murder, he asked the teacher who accompanied him: "Does that mean I have to go and live with you?"

Jason Hill

Jason Hill, a 13-year-old white boy who lived on Broadwater Farm, was seen looting from a store in the Tangmere block during the riot, near where Blakelock was killed. He was arrested on 13 October 1985 and taken to Leyton Police Station, where he was held for three days without access to a lawyer. He reported being kept in a very hot cell, which he said made sleeping and even breathing difficult. His clothes and shoes were removed for forensic tests and he was interviewed wearing only underpants and a blanket, the latter of which by the third day of detention was stained with his own vomit. Hyacinth Moody of the Haringey Community Relations Council sat in as an "appropriate adult"; she was criticized by the judge for having failed to intervene. Over the course of several interviews, Hill told police that he had witnessed the attack and named Silcott and others, including Mark Lambie.. He described almost a ritualistic killing and said that Silcott—whom he called "Sticks"—had forced him to make his "mark" on Blakelock with a sword. According to David Rose, Hill described inflicting injuries to Blakelock's chest and leg that did not match the autopsy report. After he had cut Blakelock, Hill said, Silcott told him he was cool and asked what he had seen. Hill said he had replied, "Nothing", and that Silcott had said, "Well, you can go." Hill said the aim of the attack had been to decapitate Blakelock and put his head on a stick. In 1991 he told Rose that, throughout the interview, the police had said, "Go on, admit it, you had a stab," and "It was Sticks, wasn't it?" He said they had threatened to keep him in the station for two weeks and said he would never see his family again. "They could have told me it was Prince Charles and I would have said it was him."

Mark Lambie

Mark Lambie, aged 14, was the third juvenile to be charged with murder. He was named by Mark Pennant and Jason Hill, and was interviewed with his father and a solicitor present. Lambie admitted to having taken part in the rioting, but denied involvement in the murder. One witness said during the trial that he had seen Lambie force his way through the crowd to reach Blakelock, although the testimony was discredited; the witness was caught in several lies and admitted he had offered evidence only to avoid a prison sentence. (Seventeen years later, in May 2002, Lambie was jailed for 12 years for kidnap and blackmail after detaining and torturing two men; newspapers described him at that time as a

Yardie Yardie (or Yaadi) is a term often used, particularly within the Caribbean expatriate and Jamaican diaspora, to refer to people of Jamaican origin, though its exact meaning changes depending on context. The term is derived from the Jamaican pat ...

gang leader.)

Winston Silcott

=Background

= According to David Rose, a former detective inspector called the Blakelock investigation a "pre-scientific inquiry, it was all about how to get Winston Silcott convicted, not discovering who killed Keith Blakelock." By the time of the murder, local police saw Silcott as the "biggest mafioso in Tottenham ... running the mugging gangs, paying them with drugs", according to another former senior officer in Tottenham.. Silcott was 26 years old when he was arrested, the oldest of the six charged with murder. He was born in Tottenham in 1959; his parents, both

Seventh-day Adventists The Seventh-day Adventist Church is an Adventism, Adventist Protestantism, Protestant Christian denomination which is distinguished by its observance of Saturday, the Names of the days of the week#Numbered days of the week, seventh day of the ...

, had arrived in England from

Montserrat Montserrat ( ) is a British Overseas Territories, British Overseas Territory in the Caribbean. It is part of the Leeward Islands, the northern portion of the Lesser Antilles chain of the West Indies. Montserrat is about long and wide, with r ...

two years earlier. He told Rose that he had experienced racism throughout his entire upbringing, particularly from the police. After leaving school at 15, he took a series of low-paying jobs and in 1976 began breaking into houses. The following year he was convicted of nine counts of burglary and sent to

borstal A Borstal was a type of youth detention centre in the United Kingdom, several member states of the Commonwealth and the Republic of Ireland. In India, such a detention centre is known as a Borstal school. Borstals were run by HM Prison Service ...

for a few months, and in 1979 he was sentenced to six months for wounding. In September 1980 he stood trial for the murder of 19-year-old Lennie McIntosh, a postal worker, who was stabbed and killed at a party in Muswell Hill in 1979. The first trial resulted in a hung jury; a second trial saw him acquitted. In 1983 Silcott was given a government grant to open a greengrocer's on the deck of the Tangmere block of Broadwater Farm. More convictions followed: in October that year he was fined for possessing a flick knife and in March 1984 for obstructing police. In 1985 he made the news when he told

Diana, Princess of Wales Diana, Princess of Wales (born Diana Frances Spencer; 1 July 1961 – 31 August 1997) was a member of the British royal family. She was the first wife of King Charles III (then Prince of Wales) and mother of Princes William and Harry. Her ac ...

, who was on an official visit to Broadwater Farm, that she should not have come without bringing jobs, which ''The Sun'' interpreted as a threat. In December 1984 Silcott was arrested for the murder of a 22-year-old boxer, Anthony Smith, at a party in Hackney. Smith had been slashed more than once on his face, there were two wounds to his abdomen, a lung had been lacerated and his

aorta The aorta ( ) is the main and largest artery in the human body, originating from the left ventricle of the heart and extending down to the abdomen, where it splits into two smaller arteries (the common iliac arteries). The aorta distributes ...

cut. Silcott was charged with the murder in May 1985 and was out on bail when Blakelock was killed in October that year. At first he told police he had not known Smith and had not been at the party, although at trial he acknowledged having been there. He said Smith had started punching him, and that he had pushed Smith back but had not been carrying a knife. Silcott was convicted of Smith's murder in February 1986, while awaiting trial for the Blakelock murder, and was sentenced to life imprisonment; he was released in 2003 after serving 17 years. After the conviction he told his lawyer he had indeed known Smith, that there had been bad blood between them, and that he had stabbed the man in self-defence, because one of Smith's friends had had a knife.

=Disputed interview

= Known as "Sticks" locally, Silcott was living in the Martlesham block of Broadwater Farm at the time of the riots, and was running his greengrocer's shop in the Tangmere block, the block near the spot where Blakelock was killed. He told David Rose in 2004 that he had been in the Tangmere block on the night of the death, and had stopped someone from throwing a scaffolding pole through the window of his shop. A friend of his, Pam, had then invited him to her apartment to keep him out of trouble.Rose, David (18 January 2004)
"'They created Winston Silcott, the beast of Broadwater Farm. And they won't let this creation lie down and die'"
''The Observer''. Rose, David (18 January 2004)
"Silcott talks for first time about night of PC's murder"
''The Observer''. He told Rose: "And look, I'm on bail for a murder. I know I'm stupid, but I'm not that stupid. There's helicopters, police photographers everywhere. All I could think about was that I didn't want to lose my bail." He said he had first learned of Blakelock's death when he heard cheering in the apartment he was staying in, in response to a news report about it.McDougall, Dan (3 March 2004)
"Winston Silcott calls for inquiry into PC Blakelock murder case"
''The Scotsman''. Silcott was arrested for Blakelock's murder on 12 October 1985, six days after the riot; he was interviewed five times over 24 hours; Det Ch Supt Melvin asked the questions and Det Insp Maxwell Dingle took the notes. During the first four interviews, Silcott stayed mostly silent and refused to sign the detectives' notes, but during the fifth interview on 13 October, when Melvin said he knew Silcott had struck Blakelock with a machete or sword, his demeanour changed, according to the notes. The notes show him asking: "Who told you that?" When the detectives said they had witnesses, he reportedly said: "They are only kids. No one is going to believe them." The notes say he walked around the interview room with tears in his eyes, saying: "You cunts, you cunts", and "Jesus, Jesus", then: "You ain't got enough evidence. Those kids will never go to court. You wait and see. No one else will talk to you. You can't keep me away from them." The notes show him saying of the murder weapons: "You're too slow, man, they gone." He was at that point charged with murder, to which he reportedly responded: "They won't give evidence against me.". It was this interview that led to Silcott's conviction for murder being overturned. According to a scientist who conducted forensic tests on the original interview notes, the detectives' notes from the portion of the interview in which Silcott appeared to incriminate himself had been inserted after the other interview notes were written.

Engin Raghip

Nineteen-year-old Engin Raghip, of Turkish–Cypriot descent, was arrested on 24 October 1985 after a friend mentioned his name to police, the only time anyone had linked him to the murder. During his trial, the court heard from an expert that Raghip was "in the middle of the mildly mentally handicapped range", although this testimony was withheld from the jury. His mental impairment became a key issue during his successful appeal in 1991 in ''R v Raghip and others'', when the court accepted that it had rendered his confession unsafe. Raghip's parents had moved from Cyprus to England in 1956. Raghip left school at age 15, illiterate, and by the time of the murder had three convictions, one for burglary and two for stealing cars. He had a common-law wife, Sharon Daly, with whom he had a two-year-old boy, and he worked occasionally as a mechanic. He had little connection with Broadwater Farm, although he lived in nearby

Wood Green Wood Green is a suburban district in the borough of Haringey in London, England. Its postal district is N22, with parts in N8 or N15. The London Plan identifies it as one of the metropolitan centres in Greater London, and today it forms a maj ...

and had gone to the Farm with two friends to watch the riot, he said. One of those friends, John Broomfield, gave an interview to the ''Daily Mirror'' on 23 October 1985, boasting about his involvement. When Broomfield was arrested, he implicated Raghip. Broomfield was later convicted of an unrelated murder.. At the time of Raghip's arrest, he had been drinking and smoking cannabis for several days, and his common-law wife had just left him, taking their son with her. He was held for two days without representation, first speaking to a solicitor on the third day, who said he had found Raghip distressed and disoriented.. He was interviewed by Det Sgt van Thal and Det Insp John Kennedy ten times over a period of four days. He made several incriminating statements, first that he had thrown stones, then during the second interview that he had seen the attack on Blakelock. During the third, he said he had spoken to Silcott about the murder, and that Silcott owned a hammer with a hook on one side. After the fifth interview he was charged with affray, and during the sixth he described the attack on Blakelock: "It was like you see in a film, a helpless man with dogs on him. It was just like that, it was really quick." He did not sign this interview, Rose writes, and after it he vomited.. During a seventh interview the next day, Raghip described noises he said Blakelock had made during the attack. During the eighth interview, he said he had armed himself that night with a broom handle, and had tried to get close to what was happening to Blakelock, but there were too many people around him: "I had a weapon when I was running toward the policeman, a broom handle." He said he might have kicked or hit him had he been able to get close enough. Rose writes that Raghip also offered the order in which Blakelock's attackers had launched the assault. He was held for another two days, released on bail, then charged with murder six weeks later, in December 1985, under the doctrine of

common purpose The doctrine of common purpose, common design, joint enterprise, joint criminal enterprise or parasitic accessory liability is a common law legal doctrine that imputes criminal liability to the participants in a criminal enterprise for all reaso ...

Mark Braithwaite

Aged 18 when Blakelock was killed, Mark Braithwaite was a rapper and disc jockey living with his parents in

Islington Islington () is a district in the north of Greater London, England, and part of the London Borough of Islington. It is a mainly residential district of Inner London, extending from Islington's High Street to Highbury Fields, encompassing the ar ...

, London, N1. He had a girlfriend who lived on Broadwater Farm, with whom he had a child. On 16 January 1986, three months after the murder, his name was mentioned for the first time to detectives by a man they had arrested, Bernard Kinghorn. Kinghorn told them he had seen Braithwaite, whom he said he knew only by sight, stab Blakelock with a kitchen knife. Kinghorn later withdrew the allegation, telling the BBC three years later that it had been false. Braithwaite was taken to Enfield Police Station and interviewed by Det Sgt Dermot McDermott and Det Con Colin Biggar. He was held for three days and was at first denied access to a lawyer, on the instruction of Det Ch Supt Melvin. He was interviewed eight times over the first two days, and with a lawyer present four times on the third. During the first 30 hours of his detention he had nothing to eat, and said in court—as did several other suspects—that the heat in the cells was oppressive, making it difficult to breathe. He at first denied being anywhere near the Farm, then during interview four said he had been there and had thrown stones, and during interview five said he had been at the Tangmere block, but had played no role in the murder. During interview six, he said he had hit Blakelock with an iron bar in the chest and leg. Rose writes that there were no such injuries on Blakelock's body. In a seventh interview, he said he had hit a police officer, but that it was not Blakelock. On the basis of this confession evidence, he was charged with murder..

(1987) Trial: ''R v Silcott and others''

Of the 359 men and youths arrested, 159 were charged, including with affray and throwing petrol bombs, and 88 were convicted. According to ''The Times'', the accused were "divided almost equally between black and white". Five defendants were 29 or older; most were teenagers or in their early 20s. The youngest was aged 12. The trial of the six accused of murder—Silcott, Raghip and Braithwaite, the adults; and Pennant, Hill and Lambie, the youths—began in court number two of the

Old Bailey The Central Criminal Court of England and Wales, commonly referred to as the Old Bailey after the street on which it stands, is a criminal court building in central London, one of several that house the Crown Court of England and Wales. The s ...

on 19 January 1987 in front of Mr Justice Hodgson.Rose, David (20 January 1987). "Blakelock jury warned". ''The Guardian''. All were charged with murder, riot, and affray; Lambie was also charged with throwing petrol bombs. The jury consisted of eight white men, two black women and two white women. They were not told that it was Silcott's fourth murder trial, that he had been out on bail for the murder of Anthony Smith when Blakelock was killed, or that he had subsequently been convicted of that murder.David Palliser
"Why Met caved in and paid Silcott"
''The Guardian'', 23 October 1999. Silcott's barrister,

Barbara Mills Dame Barbara Jean Lyon Mills DBE, QC (''née'' Warnock; 10 August 1940 – 28 May 2011) was a British barrister. She held various senior public appointments including Director of Public Prosecutions, and was widely seen as a pioneer for women g ...

, a future

Director of Public Prosecutions The Director of Public Prosecutions (DPP) is the office or official charged with the prosecution of criminal offences in several criminal jurisdictions around the world. The title is used mainly in jurisdictions that are or have been members o ...

, decided that he should not take the stand to avoid exposing him to questions about his previous convictions. The effort to avoid introducing the conviction for the murder of Anthony Smith worked against Silcott too. It meant that the jury could not be told that he had signed on for his bail at Tottenham police station at around 7 pm on the evening of Blakelock's death. This was when witnesses had placed Silcott at a Broadwater Youth Association meeting, making inflammatory speeches against the police. Roy Amlot QC told the court that Blakelock had been stabbed 40 times by at least two knives and a machete. There were eight injuries to his head, and one of the weapons had penetrated his jawbone. In the view of the prosecution, the killers had intended to decapitate him and place his head on a pole.Rose, David (20 March 1987). "Police broke rules in hunt for killers of PC who fell victim to bloodlust of the mob". ''The Guardian''. The press coverage of the trial included the publication on day two, by ''The Sun'', of a notorious close-up of a half-smiling Silcott, one that "created a monster to stalk the nightmares of Middle England", as journalist

Kurt Barling Kurt Barling (born November 1961) is a British professor of journalism at Middlesex University."Winston Silcott: Not free yet"
BBC News, 27 February 2004. Silcott said he had been asleep in a police cell when it was taken; he said he was woken up, held in a corridor with his arms pinned against a wall and photographed, and that the expression on his face was one of fear.Taylor, Diane (13 November 2002)
"Fall guy"
''The Guardian''. Its publication constituted "the most gross contempt", according to the trial judge speaking to David Rose in 1992. No action was taken against the newspaper. The judge dismissed the charges against the youths because they had been detained without access to parents or a lawyer; in the absence of the jury, the judge was highly critical of the police on that point. Four armoured police vehicles waited in Tottenham as the jury deliberated for three days. They returned on 19 March 1987 with a unanimous guilty verdict against Silcott, Raghip and Braithwaite; the men were sentenced to life imprisonment, with a recommendation that Silcott serve at least 30 years.McKillop, James (20 March 1987)
"Second Life Sentence for Blakelock Killer"
''The Glasgow Herald''. One black female juror fainted when the verdicts were read out. Rose writes that the tabloids knew no restraint, writing about the beasts of Broadwater Farm, hooded animals and packs of savages, with the old jail-cell image of Silcott published above captions such as "smile of evil".

Campaign on behalf of the "Tottenham Three"

Broadwater Farm Defence Campaign

A campaign to free the "Tottenham Three" gathered pace, organized by the Broadwater Farm Defence Campaign. They published an 18-page report in 1987 by

Margaret Burnham Margaret A. Burnham (born December 28, 1944) is an American lawyer and academic who is a professor at the Northeastern University School of Law and the founder of the Civil Rights and Restorative Justice Project. She is a Senate-confirmed nomin ...

and Lennox Hinds, two American law professors who had attended part of the trial, and who wrote that Silcott's conviction "represents a serious miscarriage of justice". Rose writes that the ''

New Statesman The ''New Statesman'' is a British political and cultural magazine published in London. Founded as a weekly review of politics and literature on 12 April 1913, it was at first connected with Sidney and Beatrice Webb and other leading members ...

'' and ''

Time Out Time-out, Time Out, or timeout may refer to: Time * Time-out (sport), in various sports, a break in play, called by a team * Television timeout, a break in sporting action so that a commercial break may be taken * Timeout (computing), an enginee ...

'' wrote sympathetic pieces, and MPs and trade unionists were lobbied. In May 1989 the

London School of Economics , mottoeng = To understand the causes of things , established = , type = Public research university , endowment = £240.8 million (2021) , budget = £391.1 millio ...

students' union elected Silcott as the college's honorary president, to the dismay of its director and governors. Silcott resigned shortly afterwards, saying he did not want the students to become scapegoats."Britons vexed by election of cop killer"
Associated Press, 2 May 1989
"Police killer remains as students' choice"
''The Glasgow Herald'', 3 May 1989
"Ballot over Silcott"
''The Glasgow Herald'', 6 May 1989
"Killer students elected resigns"
''The Glasgow Herald'', 10 May 1989.

(1988) Raghip's application for leave to appeal

Engin Raghip's solicitor was by now

Gareth Peirce Gareth Peirce (born Jean Margaret Webb; March 1940) is a British solicitor and human rights activist. She has worked on a number of high-profile cases involving allegations of human rights injustices. Her work with Gerry Conlon and the Guildfo ...

—who had represented the

Guildford Four Guildford () is a town in west Surrey, around southwest of central London. As of the 2011 census, the town has a population of about 77,000 and is the seat of the wider Borough of Guildford, which had around inhabitants in . The name "Guildfo ...

and

Birmingham Six The Birmingham Six were six Irishmen who were each sentenced to life imprisonment in 1975 following their false convictions for the 1974 Birmingham pub bombings. Their convictions were declared unsafe and unsatisfactory and quashed by the Cou ...

—and his barrister

Michael Mansfield Michael Mansfield (born 12 October 1941) is an English barrister and head of chambers at Nexus Chambers. He was recently described as "The king of human rights work" by The Legal 500 and as a Leading Silk in civil liberties and human rights ( ...

. Peirce applied for leave to appeal. She began to explore Raghip's mental state, arguing that his confession could not be relied upon, and arranged for him to be examined by Dr.

Gísli Guðjónsson Gísli Hannes Guðjónsson, CBE (born 26 October 1947) is an Icelandic-British academic, educator, forensic psychologist and former detective. He is Emeritus Professor at the Institute of Psychiatry of King's College London and a Professor in ...

of the

Institute of Psychiatry The Institute of Psychiatry, Psychology and Neuroscience (IoPPN) is a research institution dedicated to discovering what causes mental illness and diseases of the brain. In addition, its aim is to help identify new treatments for them and ways ...

, a specialist in suggestibility. Gísli concluded that Raghip was unusually suggestible, with a mental age of between 10 and 11. Silcott was again represented by

and Braithwaite by Steven Kamlish. Mills noted the lack of photographic or scientific evidence, and argued that Silcott would have been unlikely to stop firefighters from extinguishing a fire on the deck of the Tangmere block, given that he was renting a shop there.

Lord Lane Geoffrey Dawson Lane, Baron Lane, (17 July 1918 – 22 August 2005) was a British Judge who served as Lord Chief Justice of England from 1980 to 1992. The later part of his term was marred by a succession of disputed convictions. Lane's criti ...

, then

Lord Chief Justice of England Lord is an appellation for a person or deity who has authority, control, or power over others, acting as a master, chief, or ruler. The appellation can also denote certain persons who hold a title of the peerage in the United Kingdom, or a ...

, dismissed the applications on 13 December 1988, arguing of Raghip that the jury had had ample opportunity to form its own opinion of him.

Amnesty International Amnesty International (also referred to as Amnesty or AI) is an international non-governmental organization focused on human rights, with its headquarters in the United Kingdom. The organization says it has more than ten million members and sup ...

criticized the decision, pointing to the problems with confessions made in the absence of a lawyer, and was criticized in turn by Home Secretary

Douglas Hurd Douglas Richard Hurd, Baron Hurd of Westwell, (born 8 March 1930) is a British Conservative Party politician who served in the governments of Margaret Thatcher and John Major from 1979 to 1995. A career diplomat and political secretary to P ...

, who said Amnesty had abandoned its impartiality. There was disquiet that the application to appeal had failed. During a BBC ''

Newsnight ''Newsnight'' (or ''BBC Newsnight'') is BBC Two's news and current affairs programme, providing in-depth investigation and analysis of the stories behind the day's headlines. The programme is broadcast on weekdays at 22:30. and is also availa ...

'' discussion,

Lord Scarman Leslie George Scarman, Baron Scarman, (29 July 1911 – 8 December 2004) was an English judge and barrister, who served as a Law Lord until his retirement in 1986. Early life and education Scarman was born in Streatham but grew up on the borde ...

, a former

Law Lord Lords of Appeal in Ordinary, commonly known as Law Lords, were judges appointed under the Appellate Jurisdiction Act 1876 to the British House of Lords, as a committee of the House, effectively to exercise the judicial functions of the House of ...

, said the convictions ought to be overturned. Gareth Peirce obtained another psychologist's report about Raghip and, supported by Raghip's MP

Michael Portillo Michael Denzil Xavier Portillo (; born 26 May 1953) is a British journalist, broadcaster and former politician. His broadcast series include railway documentaries such as ''Great British Railway Journeys'' and '' Great Continental Railway Journ ...

, asked the Home Secretary to review the case. She also submitted an application to the

European Court of Human Rights The European Court of Human Rights (ECHR or ECtHR), also known as the Strasbourg Court, is an international court of the Council of Europe which interprets the European Convention on Human Rights. The court hears applications alleging that a ...

, arguing that the way Raghip had been interviewed breached the

European Convention on Human Rights The European Convention on Human Rights (ECHR; formally the Convention for the Protection of Human Rights and Fundamental Freedoms) is an international convention to protect human rights and political freedoms in Europe. Drafted in 1950 by t ...

. In December 1990 Home Secretary Kenneth Baker referred Raghip's case back to the Court of Appeal.

(1990) Electrostatic detection analysis

In parallel with the efforts of Pierce, Silcott's lawyers had requested access in November 1990 to his original interview notes, so that the seven pages from his crucial fifth interview—the notes he said were fabricated—could be submitted for an electrostatic detection analysis (ESDA). The test can identify a small electrostatic charge left on a page when the page above it is written on; in this way, the test's developers say, the chronological integrity of interview notes can be determined. In Silcott's case, according to the scientist who conducted the ESDA test, Robert Radley, the notes from the section of the fifth interview in which Silcott appeared to incriminate himself had been inserted after the other notes were written. The seventh and final page of the fifth interview, where the participants would normally sign, was missing.. The ESDA test suggested that, on the third to sixth pages of the interview, no impressions had been left from previous pages, although these earlier impressions appeared throughout the rest of the notes. According to Will Bennett in ''

The Independent ''The Independent'' is a British online newspaper. It was established in 1986 as a national morning printed paper. Nicknamed the ''Indy'', it began as a broadsheet and changed to tabloid format in 2003. The last printed edition was publis ...

'', the test "also revealed an imprint of a different page five from the one submitted in evidence which was clearly the same interview with Silcott but in which he made no implicit admissions". In addition to this, David Baxendale, a Home Office forensic scientist who was asked to investigate by Essex police, said that the paper on which the disputed notes were written came from a different batch of paper from the rest of the interview. The disputed section of the interview had been written down by Det Insp Maxwell Dingle. It said that, when the police told Silcott that they had witness statements saying he had attacked Blakelock, Silcott replied: "They are only kids. No one is going to believe them"; he reportedly said later: "Those kids will never go to court, you wait and see." As a result of the ESDA test evidence, the Home Secretary added Silcott and Braithwaite to Raghip's appeal.

(1991) Appeal: ''R v Raghip and others''

The

Court of Appeal A court of appeals, also called a court of appeal, appellate court, appeal court, court of second instance or second instance court, is any court of law that is empowered to hear an appeal of a trial court or other lower tribunal. In much of t ...

heard Silcott's appeal on 25 November 1991 and took just 90 minutes to overturn the conviction, delivering its 74-page decision on 5 December. Raghip and Braithwaite's appeal was heard a few days later and was also swiftly overturned. ''R v Raghip and others'' is regarded as a landmark ruling because it recognized that "interrogative suggestibility" might make a confession unreliable. The court heard that Silcott's interview notes were contaminated, and that Raghip's suggestibility and Braithwaite's having been denied a lawyer rendered their confessions unreliable. The Crown prosecutor, Roy Amlot, conceded that the apparent contamination rendered all three convictions unsafe: " would not have gone on against Braithwaite, against Raghip, against any other defendants, having learned of the apparent dishonesty of the officer in charge of the case. I say that because the Crown has to depend on the honesty and integrity of officers in a case ... The impact is obviously severe." Rose writes that the statement was "one of the more sensational speeches in English legal history." Braithwaite and Raghip were released immediately.Brain 2010, pp.&nbs
185–186
Silcott remained in jail for the 1984 murder of Anthony Smith. He received £17,000 compensation in 1991 for his conviction in the Blakelock case, and in 1995 was offered up to £200,000 in

legal aid Legal aid is the provision of assistance to people who are unable to afford legal representation and access to the court system. Legal aid is regarded as central in providing access to justice by ensuring equality before the law, the right to co ...

to sue the police for conspiracy to pervert the course of justice. The Metropolitan Police settled out of court in 1999, awarding him £50,000 for false imprisonment and malicious prosecution. He was released on licence in October 2003 having served 17 years for Smith's murder."Silcott freed from jail"
BBC News, 20 October 2003.

Second investigation and detectives' trial

(1992–1994) Commander Perry Nove

A second criminal inquiry was opened in 1992 under Commander

Perry Nove Perry Richard Nove is a retired British senior police officer who served as Commissioner of the City of London Police from 1998 to 2002. Police career Nove was awarded the Queen's Police Medal (QPM) in the 1997 Queen's Birthday Honours in rec ...

, who appealed for help from the local black community. In January 1993 the

Crown Prosecution Service The Crown Prosecution Service (CPS) is the principal public agency for conducting criminal prosecutions in England and Wales. It is headed by the Director of Public Prosecutions. The main responsibilities of the CPS are to provide legal adv ...

(CPS) drew a distinction between the "kickers and the stabbers"—those who had kicked or punched Blakelock and those who had used weapons—and decided that the former could be called as witnesses in exchange for immunity from prosecution. By the end of 1993, Rose writes, Nove had identified nine suspects against whom at least two eyewitnesses would testify, supported by evidence such as photographs.Rose 1996, pp. 300–301; for "kickers and stabbers", see Halliday, Josh (10 March 2014)
"Keith Blakelock murder witness denies 'fitting up' knife suspect Nicky Jacobs"
''The Guardian''. The suspect list included Nicholas Jacobs, who in 2014 would be tried for Blakelock's murder, based on statements gathered during the Nove investigation, and acquitted. It transpired during Jacobs' trial that two of the witnesses who testified against him had been paid expenses to the tune of thousands of pounds during Nove's inquiry. In parallel with the second investigation, a case was being prepared against Det Ch Supt Melvin and Det Insp Dingle. In July 1992 Melvin was charged with perjury and conspiracy to pervert the course of justice, and Dingle with conspiracy. In 1994 their lawyers applied for access to information from Nove's inquiry, on the grounds that it might help their clients; anything that implicated Silcott would support the detectives' contention that their interview notes were genuine and that Silcott had, in effect, confessed. The lawyers argued that the detectives should not be prosecuted until all related criminal proceedings had concluded. Nove fought the application because he had promised his witnesses confidentiality, but he agreed to give the lawyers access to relevant passages from seven witness statements that implicated Silcott. The witnesses themselves refused to testify, so the passages were read out to the jury during the detectives' trial. According to Rose, only one of the statements seriously implicated Silcott, alleging that he had acted "like a general, sending out his little troops", and that he had joined in the attack himself.. The day before the detectives' trial began in 1994, the Crown Prosecution Service announced that the nine suspects would not be prosecuted because it was not in the public interest.

(1994) Trial: ''R v Melvin and Dingle''

The trial of Det Ch Supt Melvin and Det Insp Dingle opened in June 1994 at the Old Bailey before Mr. Justice Jowitt. Only three people had been present during the disputed interview with Silcott—Melvin, Dingle and Silcott himself—and none of them gave evidence.

David Calvert-Smith Sir David Calvert-Smith, KC (born 6 April 1945), styled The Hon. Mr Justice Calvert-Smith, is a retired British judge. He was Director of Public Prosecutions of England and Wales from 1998 to 2003 and then a High Court judge. Educated at Eto ...

, for the prosecution, alleged that the detectives' reportedly contemporaneous notes of the fifth interview with Silcott had been altered after the fact to include the self-incriminating remarks. Silcott had refused to answer questions during the first four interviews.Bennett, Will (29 June 1994)
"Detectives 'fabricated Silcott evidence'"
''The Independent''. During the fifth, when told there were witness statements that he had struck Blakelock with a machete or similar, the notes show him saying: "Those kids will never go to court. You wait and see. No one else will talk to you. You can't keep me away from them." Silcott denied ever having said those words. Richard Ferguson QC, for the defence, argued that the ESDA test, which suggested that the disputed words had been added to the notes later, was not reliable. The defence also produced 14 witness statements from the two Blakelock inquiries, seven of them excerpts from Nove's 1992–1994 inquiry and seven from the original investigation in 1985; the latter were read out to the jury as statements H to N. One of the 1985 statements said that Silcott had been carrying a knife with a two-foot-long blade on the night of the murder, and that he had attacked Blakelock. Several of the statements H–N originated from the juveniles who had been arrested shortly after the murder. They included Jason Hill, the 13-year-old who had been held for three days in his underpants and a blanket, without access to his parents or a lawyer. (Hill received £30,000 in damages from the police over his treatment.) Hill had not been told that his statement was going to be read out in court during the detectives' trial; he first learned that it had been used when he heard it on television. Another statement was from Mark Pennant, also a juvenile who had been arrested during the first inquiry. Overall it appeared that Silcott was being retried.. The detectives were acquitted on 26 July 1994 by a unanimous verdict.; Bennett, Will (27 July 1994)
"Detectives cleared over Silcott case"
''The Independent''. Both had been suspended during the case. Dingle retired immediately. Melvin was greeted as a hero when he returned to work, but he retired three months later.

Third investigation

(2003) Det Supt John Sweeney

In March 1999 the Metropolitan Police included Blakelock's killing in a review of 300 unsolved murders in London going back to 1984, when details were first recorded on computer. In December 2003, weeks after Silcott was released from jail after serving 17 years for the murder of Anthony Smith, police announced that the Blakelock investigation had been re-opened, and would be led by Det Supt John Sweeney. Detectives began re-examining 10,000 witness statements, and submitting items for forensic tests not available in 1985. In September 2004 the back garden of a terraced council house in Willan Road, near the Broadwater Farm estate, was excavated after a tip-off. A female friend of Cynthia Jarrett, the woman whose death sparked the Broadwater Farm riot, lived alone at the house between 1984 and 1989, and according to the ''

Evening Standard The ''Evening Standard'', formerly ''The Standard'' (1827–1904), also known as the ''London Evening Standard'', is a local free daily newspaper in London, England, published Monday to Friday in tabloid format. In October 2009, after be ...

'' was one of the first on the scene when police raided Jarrett's house. Archaeologists dug up the garden, while surveyors used infra-red beams to create a three-dimensional map of the area. A machete was found and sent for forensic tests. Police also searched the garden for Blakelock's truncheon and helmet. In October 2004 his overalls were retrieved from

Scotland Yard Scotland Yard (officially New Scotland Yard) is the headquarters of the Metropolitan Police, the territorial police force responsible for policing Greater London's 32 boroughs, but not the City of London, the square mile that forms London's ...

Crime Museum The Crime Museum is a collection of criminal memorabilia kept at New Scotland Yard, headquarters of the Metropolitan Police Service in London, England. Known as the Black Museum until the early 21st century, the museum came into existence at S ...

for DNA tests. Nothing was found that could be used as evidence.

(2010 and 2013) Ten arrests; Jacobs charged

Six years later, between February and October 2010, 10 men between the ages of 42 and 52 were arrested on suspicion of Blakelock's murder. The first to be arrested, in February, was Nicholas Jacobs, who had been questioned in 1985 in connection with Blakelock's death and had been convicted of affray. Jacobs was one of nine suspects that the Crown Prosecution Service had decided not to charge with Blakelock's murder at the conclusion of Commander Perry Nove's 1992–1994 inquiry.Barrett, David (6 March 2014)
"Pc Keith Blakelock murder trial: witnesses received cash and perks from police"
''The Daily Telegraph''. Nothing appeared to come of the arrests. In October 2010, to mark the 25th anniversary, the BBC's ''

Crimewatch ''Crimewatch'' (formerly ''Crimewatch UK'') is a British television programme produced by the BBC, that reconstructs major unsolved crimes in order to gain information from the public which may assist in solving the case. The programme was or ...

'' staged a reconstruction and appealed for information. In July 2013 the Crown Prosecution Service announced that, although suspicions remained about six of those arrested, no action would be taken against five of them because of insufficient evidence. The remaining suspect, Nicholas "Nicky" Conrad Jacobs, 16 years old at the time of the riot, was charged with Blakelock's murder that month and was remanded in custody.For date of birth, see ; for full name, see "Court Appearances in England and Wales", causelist.org, 4 March 2013. Evans, Martin (23 July 2013)
"PC Keith Blakelock: Family welcome murder charge development"
''The Daily Telegraph''. Moore, Stephen (24 July 2013)
"PC Keith Blakelock murder: Friends pledge to fight Nicky Jacobs' corner ahead of Old Bailey trial"
, ''Tottenham and Wood Green Journal''. Scott, Stafford (25 July 2013)
"PC Blakelock: black people are waiting for justice too"
''The Guardian''. He pleaded not guilty in November 2013. Jacobs was living with his mother in Manor Road, Tottenham, at the time of the riot. He had spent time in a residential school in Reading in 1983–1984 as a result of a care order, and in 1985 he joined a Tottenham gang, the Park Lane Crew. He was named shortly after the riot by two of those arrested, and was arrested himself five days later "in connection with the murder of PC Blakelock", according to police records. The police had a photograph of him from the night carrying a petrol bomb, a basket of rocks, and a crate. He told them he had first arrived at the estate after midnight, two hours after Blakelock was killed; he said he had been at home during the attack.Cheston, Paul (9 April 2014)
"Nicky Jacobs cleared of PC Keith Blakelock murder during 1985 Tottenham's Broadwater Farm riot"
''Evening Standard''. He was charged with affray, and in November 1986 Judge Neil Denison sentenced him to eight years, ruling that Jacobs had "played a leading part" in the riots and had thrown a petrol bomb. The longest sentence handed out for affray during the riot, according to Rose, it was reduced on appeal to six years.

(2014) Trial: ''R v Jacobs''

Lyrics

The trial of Nicholas Jacobs opened before Mr Justice Nicol at the Old Bailey on 3 March 2014. Jacobs did not take the stand. He was found not guilty on 9 April 2014 by a 10–2 verdict, reached after the jury was out for one day.Dodd, Vikram (9 April 2014)
"PC Blakelock murder: family grief and questions for police as Nicky Jacobs acquitted "
''The Guardian''. The court heard that, in 1988 while Jacobs was serving his sentence for affray, a guard had found

rap Rapping (also rhyming, spitting, emceeing or MCing) is a musical form of vocal delivery that incorporates "rhyme, rhythmic speech, and street vernacular". It is performed or chanted, usually over a backing beat or musical accompaniment. The ...

lyrics in his cell, in Jacobs' handwriting:

Courtenay Griffiths Courtenay Delsdue McVay Griffiths KC (born 10 October 1955) is a Jamaican-born British barrister, who has defended in some high-profile cases. He is a member of the London-based chambers 25 Bedford Row. Early life Born in Kingston, Jamaica, t ...

QC, defending, responded that

Bob Marley Robert Nesta Marley (6 February 1945 – 11 May 1981; baptised in 1980 as Berhane Selassie) was a Jamaican singer, musician, and songwriter. Considered one of the pioneers of reggae, his musical career was marked by fusing elements o ...

had not been prosecuted for "

I Shot the Sheriff "I Shot the Sheriff" is a song written by Jamaican reggae musician Bob Marley and released in 1973 with his band Bob Marley and the Wailers. Bob Marley and the Wailers version The song was first released in 1973 on The Wailers' album '' Burni ...

". The court was also told that, when Jacobs was arrested for attempted burglary in May 2000, by then aged 30, he reportedly told an officer: "F*** off, I was one of them who killed PC Blakelock," which the defence called a "flippant street remark".

Witnesses

Broadwater Defence Campaign, London, March 2014 (2)

The main prosecution witnesses were three pseudonymous men who testified from behind a curtain with their voices distorted. Two of them, "John Brown" and "Rhodes Levin", had offered testimony to Nove during his 1992–1994 investigation; the third, "Q", was Brown's cousin."PC Blakelock murder trial: The witnesses in detail"
, ''Tottenham and Wood Green Journal'', 9 April 2014. Richard Whittam QC, for the prosecution, told the court that all three had admitted kicking or hitting Blakelock and would normally face murder charges themselves, but the CPS had decided during Commander Perry Nove's inquiry to offer the "kickers" immunity in exchange for testimony against the "stabbers". "John Brown", aged 20 at the time of the attack, had served a sentence for affray for his role in the rioting. He was a member of the Park Lane Crew, a Tottenham gang that he said Jacobs had also joined. Approached by police again during Nove's second inquiry, Brown said in a statement in August 1993 that Jacobs was a "nutter" who was "out to get blood" that night. He said Jacobs had "broadcast it everywhere that he was going to try and do a copper", and that the Park Lane Crew had stored weapons and petrol bombs in preparation for such an attack. Brown admitted to having kicked Blakelock up to ten times, and said that he had seen Jacobs attack Blakelock with a machete or similar.Barrett, David (4 March 2014)

''The Daily Telegraph''. The police gave Brown £5,000 in 1993 and an additional £590 in January 2011 toward his rent; they also paid for credits for his mobile phone so that they could reach him, and paid to have his car put through a

MOT test The MOT test (or simply MOT) is an annual test of vehicle safety, roadworthiness aspects and exhaust emissions required in the United Kingdom for most vehicles over three years old. In Northern Ireland the equivalent requirement applies after ...

(an annual roadworthiness test). The court heard that Brown had also been "made aware" by police that ''The Sun'' had offered a £100,000 reward. He told the police in 1993 that he had difficulty identifying black people: "I can't tell the difference between them. To me a black man is a black man.""Keith Blakelock murder trial: witness says he thinks 'all blacks look alike'"
Press Association, 12 March 2014. The second witness, "Rhodes Levin", had also served a sentence for affray for his role in the riots, and had a history of using cocaine, crack cocaine and heroin."Blakelock murder trial: police helmet was 'passed around like a trophy'"
Press Association, 17 March 2014. He admitted to having kicked Blakelock several times.Barrett, David (9 April 2014)

''The Daily Telegraph''. He said that Jacobs had been carrying a lock-knife with a brown handle and six-inch (15 cm) blade that night (Blakelock was found with a six-inch blade with a wooden handle embedded in his neck up to the hilt). Afterwards, Levin said, Jacobs told him he had "got a couple of jukes tabsin". Levin testified that Blakelock's helmet had been passed around as a trophy; he said he could not recall the names of those who had handled it. Levin was interviewed by police in November 1985, when he said Winston Silcott had led the attack with a machete; he told the court in 2014 that that had been a mistake. The court heard that, during Nove's 1992–1994 investigation, police had offered Levin immunity from prosecution, given him £5,000, and paid for a flight from Spain when he missed his flight home from a holiday. They approached him again in January 2008 for his testimony and helped him with expenses and a deposit for accommodation. "Q", the third witness, first told police in 2009 that he had seen the attack, after they posted a note through his letterbox asking for witnesses. The court heard that Q had a long history of using drugs and alcohol. He said he had known Nicholas Jacobs all his life and had seen him attack Blakelock with a "mini sword" or similar, making "repeated stabbing motions" toward Blakelock. The defence lawyer told the court that Q was a fantasist.Peachey, Paul (25 March 2014)
"PC Keith Blakelock murder trial: Anonymous witness denies being 'paranoid fantasist'"
''The Independent''. For an officer's statement that the knife in Blakelock's neck had a brown wooden handle, see Barrett, David (5 March 2014)

''The Daily Telegraph''. Q was unable to describe accurately where the attack had taken place.

Awards and legacy

PC Keith Blakelock memorial Muswell Hill

Blakelock was buried in

East Finchley Cemetery East Finchley Cemetery is a cemetery and crematorium in East End Road, East Finchley. Although it is in the London Borough of Barnet, it is owned and managed by the City of Westminster.Michael Bunker Michael Bunker (born 22 July 1937) was the Dean of Peterborough in the Church of England from 1992 until 2006. Educated at Acton Technical College and Oak Hill Theological College, he was ordained in 1964. After curacies at St James’ Church, ...

, the vicar of St. James's; the Rt Rev

Brian Masters Brian Masters (born 1939) is a British writer, best known for his biographies of serial killers. He has also written books on French literature, the British aristocracy, and theatre, and has worked as a translator. Early life Masters "grew up ...

, Bishop of Edmonton; and Archdeacon

Robert Coogan Robert Coogan (December 13, 1924 – May 12, 1978) was an American film and television actor. Biography Robert Coogan was born in Glendale, California, to parents Jack Coogan Sr. and Lillian Coogan. His older brother was Jackie Coogan, perha ...

—the church's seating capacity had to be extended from 600 to 800, and a further 300 police officers in a nearby

British Legion The Royal British Legion (RBL), formerly the British Legion, is a British charity providing financial, social and emotional support to members and veterans of the British Armed Forces, their families and dependants, as well as all others in ne ...

hall joined in by closed-circuit television. A public-address system was installed to allow 500 people standing outside the church to hear the service. ''The Guardian'' described it as a "miniature state occasion". A memorial for Blakelock, commissioned by the

Police Memorial Trust The Police Memorial Trust is a charitable organisation founded in 1984 and based in London. The trust's objective is to erect memorials to British police officers killed in the line of duty, at or near the spot where they died, thereby acting as ...

, stands by the roundabout at Muswell Hill, north London, where he was a homebeat officer. PC Dick Coombes, badly injured during the attack, went back to work part-time in July 1986 but was forced to retire in 1991, partly because of the epilepsy that developed as a result of brain damage. His eyesight deteriorated and he was left barely able to stand. In January 1988 every member of Serial 502 was awarded a High Commendation by Sir

Peter Imbert Peter Michael Imbert, Baron Imbert, (27 April 1933 – 13 November 2017) was Commissioner of Police of the Metropolis, Commissioner of the Metropolitan Police Service from 1987 to 1993, and prior to that appointment Chief Constable of Thames Va ...

, then

Commissioner A commissioner (commonly abbreviated as Comm'r) is, in principle, a member of a commission or an individual who has been given a commission (official charge or authority to do something). In practice, the title of commissioner has evolved to in ...

of the Metropolitan Police. In August that year, all the constables, including Blakelock, were awarded the

for "outstanding bravery and devotion to duty"; Blakelock's wife attended the ceremony on his behalf. Sgt David Pengelly, who single-handedly fought to hold the crowd away from Blakelock and Richard Coombes after they fell, received the

, awarded for acts of great bravery, for having proceeded "with total disregard for his own safety". Trevor Stratford of the London Fire Brigade was also awarded the Queen's Gallantry Medal; he and another firefighter, Graham Holloway, received commendations from the fire brigade for outstanding bravery. Two firefighters, James Ryan and David Kwai, received the Chief Fire Officer's letter of congratulations. A lack of clarity about who was in charge of the police operation on the night of Blakelock's death led to a failure to deploy reinforcements and equipment in a timely manner. To ensure that such a situation was never repeated, a new " gold–silver–bronze command structure" (strategic–tactical–operational) was created in 1985 that replaced ranks with roles. It is used by all British emergency services at every type of major incident. Comparisons were made to the 1985 Broadwater Farm Riot when rioting broke out again in Tottenham in August 2011. After police shot and killed a man, Mark Duggan, believing that he was armed, around 120 people marched from Broadwater Farm to the local police station, echoing the protests that preceded the rioting on 6 October 1985. Violence and looting spread throughout England for several days, leading to five deaths, extensive property damage and over 3,000 arrests."England's week of riots"
BBC News, 15 August 2011.

Sources

Notes

References

Works cited

:''(News sources and websites are listed in the References section only.)'' * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *

Background

Keith Blakelock

Social unrest across England

(October 1985) Broadwater Farm riot

(5 October) Death of Cynthia Jarrett

(6 October) Rioting breaks out

Serial 502

Attack on Blakelock

First investigation

Media response

Det Ch Supt Graham Melvin

Interviews

(1985–1986) Murder charges

Mark Pennant

Jason Hill

Mark Lambie

Winston Silcott

=Background

=Disputed interview

Engin Raghip

Mark Braithwaite

(1987) Trial: ''R v Silcott and others''

Campaign on behalf of the "Tottenham Three"

Broadwater Farm Defence Campaign

(1988) Raghip's application for leave to appeal

(1990) Electrostatic detection analysis

(1991) Appeal: ''R v Raghip and others''

Second investigation and detectives' trial

(1992–1994) Commander Perry Nove

(1994) Trial: ''R v Melvin and Dingle''

Third investigation

(2003) Det Supt John Sweeney

(2010 and 2013) Ten arrests; Jacobs charged

(2014) Trial: ''R v Jacobs''

Lyrics

Witnesses

Awards and legacy

See also

Sources

Notes

References

Works cited

Further reading