Gaddafi aide jointly liable for Pc killing
ARETIRED police officer who cradled his colleague Yvonne Fletcher as she lay dying has said his promise to find those responsible for her fatal shooting is “now fulfilled”.
John Murray, 66, said justice for Pc Fletcher, who was killed in 1984, was “finally achieved” after a High Court judge found a former aide to Colonel Muammar Gaddafi was jointly liable for her shooting.
Pc Fletcher, 25, was shot while policing a demonstration against the former Libyan leader outside his country’s embassy in St James’s Square in central London on April 17, 1984.
In a statement after the ruling yesterday, Mr Murray said: “My promise to Yvonne Fletcher to find those responsible for the shooting and to get justice has taken a huge step forward.”
Mr Murray said the High Court trial “should not have been necessary”, hitting out at “late interference” from the government when it previously “refused” to allow “vital evidence” to be used in an ultimately unpursued criminal prosecution.
He added: “Today, we have proven that we were right all along. Saleh Ibrahim Mabrouk was responsible for Yvonne’s death. Everything we have done leading up to this verdict has been for Yvonne. Today we have finally achieved justice for Yvonne.”
Mr Murray brought a civil claim for a nominal amount of £1 against Mr Mabrouk as part of his decades-long attempt to find “justice” for his dead friend.
Lawyers for Mr Murray accused Mr Mabrouk, who denied any wrongdoing, of being “jointly liable” for the shooting, arguing that, while he did not fire any shots, he was “instrumental” in the “orchestration” of a plan to use violence at the protest.
In a judgment delivered at the Royal Courts of Justice in London, Mr Justice Spencer found that Mr Murray had succeeded in making his case.
The ruling was met with applause in a courtroom packed with Mr Murray’s supporters, while he quietly wept as it was read out.
During a three-day trial, the court heard Mr Murray, who has suffered post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) since the incident, was seeking “vindicatory” damages for assault and battery.
Mr Justice Martin Spencer said in his judgment that “those responsible for the shooting of Yvonne Fletcher also bear liability” to Mr Murray.
He added: “I am satisfied on the balance of probabilities that there existed a common design to respond to the planned anti-Gaddafi protest by using violence.”
The judge said the evidence pointed to Mr Mabrouk being an “active participant” in a “common design to fire upon the demonstrators”.
He concluded: “Mr Murray has succeeded in showing that the defendant, Saleh Ibrahim Mabrouk, is jointly liable with those who carried out the shooting of Yvonne Fletcher, for the battery inflicted upon her”.
The judge described Mr Murray and Pc Fletcher, who worked together in central London’s Covent Garden, as “salt of the earth” who were “the very best of friends” and “the first port of call if anyone in the community had a problem”.
He told the court that Pc Fletcher died as a result of “a cowardly attack” when gunmen armed with Sterling submachine guns opened fire from the first-floor windows of the embassy on “unarmed and unsuspecting lawful demonstrators”, and who were “uncaring of the risk posed to police officers going about their normal duties”.
The judge added there seemed to be “little doubt” that the actions of the gunmen were “orchestrated and sanctioned” by Col Gaddafi, who “could not tolerate dissent or disagreement” and who was “prepared to approve murder on the streets of London”.
He said he was awarding the damages sought by Mr Murray “to vindicate his 37-year fight to bring to justice at least one of those responsible for the death of his colleague”.