Officer suing prime suspect recalls promise he made to dying Yvonne

A FORMER policeman who held WPC Yvonne Fletcher as she lay dying told yesterday how the last thing she heard was his vow to bring her killers to justice.

John Murray said he stood by the promise he made to his friend as he gave an emotional account of the moment the 25year-old officer was shot dead outside the Libyan Embassy in London 37 years ago.

The Aberdeen-born retired Metropolitan Police officer is suing the prime suspect in the case, Saleh Ibrahim Mabrouk, in a High Court civil injury case after a criminal prosecution was blocked in 2017.

Dr Mabrouk, a former aide to the late dictator Muammar Gaddafi, is alleged to have ‘orchestrated’ the shooting by directing a gunman in the embassy to fire on demonstrators outside, but he did not pull the trigger.

Mr Murray, 66, said he and Miss Fletcher, pictured, were not supposed to be policing the protest on the fateful day of April 17, 1984, but had agreed to help out. He recalled being a few yards away when she was shot in the back. He ran to help, cradling her head as other officers resuscitated her when she stopped breathing momentarily.

Recalling being in the ambulance as paramedics fought to save her life, Mr Murray said: ‘Someone must be held accountable for what happened, I promised her as she lay dying. It was the last words she heard on this Earth, I would find who did this and why.’

He is seeking nominal damages of £1 for alleged assault and battery in a bid to bring key evidence to court.

Dr Mabrouk was arrested in November 2015 on suspicion of conspiracy to murder. But 18 months later police said any prosecution had been blocked as key evidence had to be kept secret to protect national security. Dr Mabrouk had been living in the UK, having sought political asylum in 2011, but left in 2019. He told his lawyers: ‘I cannot be held liable for something I didn’t do.’ The hearing continues.