New evidence on the death of WPC Yvonne Fletcher suggests that her killer was an MI6 or CIA assassin.
On 17th April 1984, a hail of gunfire echoed around the prestigious and normally serene St James’s Square in London. The 11-round burst, from a Sterling automatic assault weapon, felled a number of Libyan demonstrators protesting against their leader, Mu’ammar Gaddafi, outside the Libyan embassy. Killed outright was Woman Police Constable (WPC) Yvonne Fletcher.
Police investigators found weapons and shell-casings on the first floor of the embassy - the Libyan Peoples Bureau. And later, intelligence sources revealed they had intercepted a message from Gaddafi 24 hours prior to the shooting, authorizing officials inside the Bureau to open fire on the demonstrators. Public outrage ensured the expulsion of Libyan diplomats from Britain.
Eighteen months later, on 5th April 1985, the ‘La Belle’ discotheque in West Berlin was raised by a terrorist bomb. One US serviceman and a young Turkish woman were killed outright, and 230 people injured. President Ronald Reagan claimed to have irrefutable proof that Libya had plotted the atrocity, and immediately authorised the bombing of Libya. Supporting Reagan was the British Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher.
Reflecting the continued public hostility against the Libyans, Thatcher ordered the launch of F-111 bombers from a US Air Force base in East Anglia. Asleep in a Bedouin tent inside Tripoli’s Golden Gate barracks as the bombers struck, Gaddafi escaped injury. His two sons, however, were badly injured, nd his 15-month-old adopted daughter was killed.
Dynamite Documents.
In 1992, British author and researcher Joe Vialls was rummaging around in his old files looking for material for a book he was writing. Although he was living in Australia at the time, Vialls had been resident in Britain when Fletcher was murdered, working for the Hughes Tool Company - an organization that often fronted for CIA personnel. During his research, Vialls came across documents he thought were ‘dynamite’. They revealed the existence of what he believed to be an ‘ultra low-key’ Hughes Tool Company office at 8 James’s Square, adjacent to the Libyan Peoples Bureau.
A true conspiracy theorist, Vialls began to wonder if there was a link between the secret, possibly CIA-operated, office and the death of Fletcher. Scrutinizing a BBC film taken in St James’s Square at the time of the murder, Vialls theorized that the fatal shot had come from the Hughes building. He was certain he possessed damning evidence of a British-US intelligence conspiracy to kill WPC Fletcher, but, in every respect except one, Vialls’ was wrong. However, his belief the British and US intelligence were behind Fletcher’s murder is now borne out by new evidence.
Reopening The Case.
Vialls has sent a letter to Channel Four Television in London, who considered the information convincing enough to require detailed investigation. Executives at Channel Four contacted Fulcrum Productions, a highly regarded documentary film company, who set about a comprehensive investigation. The alarming results of their meticulous research were broadcast in the Channel Four Television programme Dispatches in April 1996.
Fulcrum first attempted to compare Fletcher’s original autopsy with the official inquest report, and contacted coroner Paul Knapman, who presided over the inquest. Knapman refused the film makers access to the autopsy findings, despite the request being routed through Yvonne Fletcher’s mother. Receiving advice from Professor Bernard Knight, a leading British Consultant Pathologist, Fulcrum resubmitted their request - noting that it conformed to the Coroner’s Act - and the report was duly released.
Autopsy Confirmation.
Immediately, a number of inconsistencies were evident. Foremost was the original findings of the pathologist, Dr Ian West, who wrote in his autopsy report:
‘The angle of the bullet wound track indicates that [WPC Fletcher] was shot in the back by a person situated at a considerably higher level... the track would indicate that she had been shot from the upper floors of an adjacent building [to the Libyan People’s Bureau].’
Dr west noted that the bullet’s entry track was at an angle of 60-70 degrees. During later evidence given at the inquest, West changed his mind. Now he agreed with police investigators that the bullet had come from the first floor of the Libyan People’s Bureau - signifying an entry would of only 15 degrees. This unusual revision was to prove vital.
Fulcrum then had a number of experts examine the evidence in the two reports, including Hugh Thomas, a former chief consultant to the British Army in Northern Ireland - and an acknowledged expert on gunshot wounds. Thomas stated that Dr West’s testimony at the inquest was ‘rubbish’, concluding that the updated scenario west painted for the coroner was ‘impossible’. Backtracking over the post-mortem report, Thomas was convinced that the bullet that struck WPC Fletcher must have come from the upper floors of an adjacent building. Totalling five floors, the Libyan building did not have a high enough elevation for the fatal shot.
Tumbling Bullet.
Forensic examination also showed the bullet’s energy was depleted and was tumbling as it hit the police officer. The tumbling effect and the ‘terminal velocity’ are consistent with the use of silencers. Significantly, these effects are even more pronounced following the removal of part of the bullets propellant, slowing its speed and, equally importantly, creating a less audible discharge. The latter is a known technique of British SAS snipers. The damage caused by a bullet doctored this way is horrific. The tumbling bullet tears through the body, ripping tissue and vital organs beyond repair. Whoever shot Yvonne Fletcher knew it was a death shot in every sense.
The automatic weapon used inside the Libyan Bureau - a 9mm Sterling submachine gun - was not silenced. The sharp sounds of its 11 rapid-fire rounds being discharged were caught on BBC videotape and analysed by an audio expert for the Dispatches documentary. An additional videotape was also analysed. It proved to be critically important. Taken by an amateur, the film caught the sound of a ‘duller’ gunshot two seconds after the Libyan gunman ceased firing. The evidence was irrefutable - a twelfth bullet had been fired.
The Dispatches team next learned that British and US Intelligence were running a major surveillance post on the upper floors of 3 St James’s Square, two doors away from the Libyan People’s Bureau. Tom Peile, a former security officer at number 3, revealed that as many as 40 intelligence officers were active at the surveillance post in the weeks prior to the shooting.
Surveillance techniques included reading telephone and telex traffic, the use of sophisticated microphones to pick up conversations and, were possible, physically planting ‘bugs’ inside the Bureau itself. In addition, MI6, MI5, CIA and the special Branch had human ‘sources’ within the Bureau who were providing regular updates. Significantly, MI5 knew the Libyans had a cache of guns sealed in a cabinet on the first floor of the Bureau. They were all 9mm calibre weapons - the same calibre bullet that killed Fletcher.
Shoot To Kill Policy.
In a House of Commons debate in the summer of 1996, the British Government dismissed the new facts disclosed about the Fletcher shooting. Why?
Four years after Fletcher’s death, another atrocity was to occur which again involved Libya, Britain and the US - the bombing of Pan Am flight 103 over Lockerbie, Scotland. This case also witnessed very peculiar activities on the part of the British and US intelligence
On 17th April 1984, a hail of gunfire echoed around the prestigious and normally serene St James’s Square in London. The 11-round burst, from a Sterling automatic assault weapon, felled a number of Libyan demonstrators protesting against their leader, Mu’ammar Gaddafi, outside the Libyan embassy. Killed outright was Woman Police Constable (WPC) Yvonne Fletcher.
Police investigators found weapons and shell-casings on the first floor of the embassy - the Libyan Peoples Bureau. And later, intelligence sources revealed they had intercepted a message from Gaddafi 24 hours prior to the shooting, authorizing officials inside the Bureau to open fire on the demonstrators. Public outrage ensured the expulsion of Libyan diplomats from Britain.
Eighteen months later, on 5th April 1985, the ‘La Belle’ discotheque in West Berlin was raised by a terrorist bomb. One US serviceman and a young Turkish woman were killed outright, and 230 people injured. President Ronald Reagan claimed to have irrefutable proof that Libya had plotted the atrocity, and immediately authorised the bombing of Libya. Supporting Reagan was the British Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher.
Reflecting the continued public hostility against the Libyans, Thatcher ordered the launch of F-111 bombers from a US Air Force base in East Anglia. Asleep in a Bedouin tent inside Tripoli’s Golden Gate barracks as the bombers struck, Gaddafi escaped injury. His two sons, however, were badly injured, nd his 15-month-old adopted daughter was killed.
Dynamite Documents.
In 1992, British author and researcher Joe Vialls was rummaging around in his old files looking for material for a book he was writing. Although he was living in Australia at the time, Vialls had been resident in Britain when Fletcher was murdered, working for the Hughes Tool Company - an organization that often fronted for CIA personnel. During his research, Vialls came across documents he thought were ‘dynamite’. They revealed the existence of what he believed to be an ‘ultra low-key’ Hughes Tool Company office at 8 James’s Square, adjacent to the Libyan Peoples Bureau.
A true conspiracy theorist, Vialls began to wonder if there was a link between the secret, possibly CIA-operated, office and the death of Fletcher. Scrutinizing a BBC film taken in St James’s Square at the time of the murder, Vialls theorized that the fatal shot had come from the Hughes building. He was certain he possessed damning evidence of a British-US intelligence conspiracy to kill WPC Fletcher, but, in every respect except one, Vialls’ was wrong. However, his belief the British and US intelligence were behind Fletcher’s murder is now borne out by new evidence.
Reopening The Case.
Vialls has sent a letter to Channel Four Television in London, who considered the information convincing enough to require detailed investigation. Executives at Channel Four contacted Fulcrum Productions, a highly regarded documentary film company, who set about a comprehensive investigation. The alarming results of their meticulous research were broadcast in the Channel Four Television programme Dispatches in April 1996.
Fulcrum first attempted to compare Fletcher’s original autopsy with the official inquest report, and contacted coroner Paul Knapman, who presided over the inquest. Knapman refused the film makers access to the autopsy findings, despite the request being routed through Yvonne Fletcher’s mother. Receiving advice from Professor Bernard Knight, a leading British Consultant Pathologist, Fulcrum resubmitted their request - noting that it conformed to the Coroner’s Act - and the report was duly released.
Autopsy Confirmation.
Immediately, a number of inconsistencies were evident. Foremost was the original findings of the pathologist, Dr Ian West, who wrote in his autopsy report:
‘The angle of the bullet wound track indicates that [WPC Fletcher] was shot in the back by a person situated at a considerably higher level... the track would indicate that she had been shot from the upper floors of an adjacent building [to the Libyan People’s Bureau].’
Dr west noted that the bullet’s entry track was at an angle of 60-70 degrees. During later evidence given at the inquest, West changed his mind. Now he agreed with police investigators that the bullet had come from the first floor of the Libyan People’s Bureau - signifying an entry would of only 15 degrees. This unusual revision was to prove vital.
Fulcrum then had a number of experts examine the evidence in the two reports, including Hugh Thomas, a former chief consultant to the British Army in Northern Ireland - and an acknowledged expert on gunshot wounds. Thomas stated that Dr West’s testimony at the inquest was ‘rubbish’, concluding that the updated scenario west painted for the coroner was ‘impossible’. Backtracking over the post-mortem report, Thomas was convinced that the bullet that struck WPC Fletcher must have come from the upper floors of an adjacent building. Totalling five floors, the Libyan building did not have a high enough elevation for the fatal shot.
Tumbling Bullet.
Forensic examination also showed the bullet’s energy was depleted and was tumbling as it hit the police officer. The tumbling effect and the ‘terminal velocity’ are consistent with the use of silencers. Significantly, these effects are even more pronounced following the removal of part of the bullets propellant, slowing its speed and, equally importantly, creating a less audible discharge. The latter is a known technique of British SAS snipers. The damage caused by a bullet doctored this way is horrific. The tumbling bullet tears through the body, ripping tissue and vital organs beyond repair. Whoever shot Yvonne Fletcher knew it was a death shot in every sense.
The automatic weapon used inside the Libyan Bureau - a 9mm Sterling submachine gun - was not silenced. The sharp sounds of its 11 rapid-fire rounds being discharged were caught on BBC videotape and analysed by an audio expert for the Dispatches documentary. An additional videotape was also analysed. It proved to be critically important. Taken by an amateur, the film caught the sound of a ‘duller’ gunshot two seconds after the Libyan gunman ceased firing. The evidence was irrefutable - a twelfth bullet had been fired.
The Dispatches team next learned that British and US Intelligence were running a major surveillance post on the upper floors of 3 St James’s Square, two doors away from the Libyan People’s Bureau. Tom Peile, a former security officer at number 3, revealed that as many as 40 intelligence officers were active at the surveillance post in the weeks prior to the shooting.
Surveillance techniques included reading telephone and telex traffic, the use of sophisticated microphones to pick up conversations and, were possible, physically planting ‘bugs’ inside the Bureau itself. In addition, MI6, MI5, CIA and the special Branch had human ‘sources’ within the Bureau who were providing regular updates. Significantly, MI5 knew the Libyans had a cache of guns sealed in a cabinet on the first floor of the Bureau. They were all 9mm calibre weapons - the same calibre bullet that killed Fletcher.
Shoot To Kill Policy.
In a House of Commons debate in the summer of 1996, the British Government dismissed the new facts disclosed about the Fletcher shooting. Why?
Four years after Fletcher’s death, another atrocity was to occur which again involved Libya, Britain and the US - the bombing of Pan Am flight 103 over Lockerbie, Scotland. This case also witnessed very peculiar activities on the part of the British and US intelligence
