Fantastic news in the case of Keith Blakelock: “Police have launched a fresh investigation into the murder of a police constable who was killed in riots in north London more than 18 years ago, Scotland Yard said.
Pc Keith Blakelock was hacked to death during the Broadwater Farm riots in Tottenham in October 1985.
A fresh investigation had also been launched into the attempted murder of Pc Richard Coombes, who was injured in the riots, a spokeswoman for Scotland Yard said.” Read more here.
Pc Blakelock and his colleague Pc Richard Coombes were attacked during the Broadwater Farm riots in Tottenham in 1985. Coombes was seriously injured but survived. They were trying to protect firefighters when violence spiralled on the estate, sparked by the death of Cynthia Jarrett, 49, who collapsed during a police raid on her home.
Blakelock’s widow, Elizabeth Johnson said: “I know it was the uniform that they were attacking that night, but there was a father and a husband inside that uniform and they killed him. He didn’t stand a chance. He was armed with just a small truncheon and a shield. He was a home beat officer, he wasn’t a riot officer. But he was called on to do a duty and he did it and he gave the ultimate sacrifice for doing that.”
Pc Blakelock suffered more than 40 stab wounds, including some that the pathologist determined came from a machete or an axe. As he was dragged off by colleagues who bravely returned to help him, a 6in kitchen knife was still embedded to the hilt in his neck. He died later at North Middlesex Hospital.