’Martyrdom’ for Blair Peach

Press, 10 July 1979, Page 2

’Martyrdom’ for Blair Peach

PA Auckland If the New Zealand schoolteacher, Mr Blair Peach, were still alive he v. uld be amused to find he had been made a martyr, said his brother, Mr Roy Peach, of Napier, when he arrived at Auckland -Airport yesterday from Britain. The “martyrdom” attached to his brother’s death was unavoidable but accepted by! his family, Mr Peach said.

Blair Peach, aged 33, was killed in a riot at Southall,! London, in April when anti-j Nazi demonstrators clashed with National Front marchers. Witnesses alleged that Mr Peach was clubbed over the head by a police officer attached to the London special patrol group. Mr Roy Peach, a solicitor,! h' spent seven weeks in London investigating his brother’s death. He said his family expected many people to make a martyr of his brother because of the political context of his death.

However, the 6000 people who attended the funeral were dignified and only one speaker who made a “political harangue” had embarrassed the family. Mr Peach said he did not know whether he would need to return to 3ritain for further inquiries. That would depend on the outcome of official investigations being made by the police and the National Council for Civil Liberties. Mr Peach said an inquiry made by Commander J. Pass, of Scotland Yard, was

expected to produce a report soon. “I asked Commander Cass whether he expected a pros-; ecution to follow his report and he said: ‘1 really can’t tell you that’,” said Mr Peadr