WPC Fletcher died in my place, colleague tells court

YVONNE FLETCHER’S colleague said he cradled her in his arms as she lay dying and promised he would catch her killer, as he sues a senior Gaddafi aide.

John Murray, 66, was standing beside WPC Fletcher when she was shot during an anti-gaddafi protest outside the Libyan embassy on April 17, 1984.

Saleh Mabrouk, a senior aide to Muammar Gaddafi, is accused of being “at the heart” of the plot to fire on protesters from a first-floor embassy window.

He has never been convicted in relation to the shooting. Mr Murray, who suffered PTSD as a result of the murder, is suing Mabrouk for assault and battery at the High Court in London, with the aim of obtaining “vindicatory” damages of £1. Recalling the moment he saw WPC Fletcher, 25, collapse, he told the judge yesterday: “Suddenly there was a bang. I thought someone had thrown a firecracker. I looked to my right and saw Yvonne [fall] to the ground.

“She was trying to say something, but I couldn’t make it out. I put my hand under her head and held her head. She said ‘thank you’. Someone must be held accountable for what happened that day. I promised her, as she lay dying in my arms, I will find out who did this.”

Mr Murray said he and WPC Fletcher switched places at the protest regularly. “If I had changed places with her once more, it would have been me,” he said.

“It was my fault. I let her down. I was there to look after her. I felt so ashamed. She died in my place, as far as I was concerned. I still feel that.”

Mabrouk was in police custody when the shooting happened. He was one of only three people who could have organised and directed the shooting, after Gaddafi’s Libyan Revolutionary Committee took control of the embassy, the court heard. The trial continues.