On 17 April 1984, as demonstrators gathered outside the Libyan embassy in London, two gunmen lay in wait inside. At 10.18 a.m. automatic gunfire rained down and WPC Yvonne Fletcher fell, mortally wounded. As his friend lay dying, PC John Murray made her a promise that he would seek justice. 37 years would pass before he was able to fulfil that undertaking.
While researching this moving account of one man’s dogged pursuit of justice for a murdered colleague, Matt Johnson uncovered secret-service deals and government duplicity, all part of a plan to force an end to the National Union of Mineworker strike. He discovered the real reason Yvonne’s killers were allowed to go free and how events led to 30 years of growing political control of policing, resulting in the disarray increasingly evident today.
This compelling account pulls seemingly unconnected threads into a coherent and shocking whole. It provides startling insights into how decisions taken by our politicians and the actions of our intelligence agencies, may be anything but.