Witnesses describe panic? confusion at Southall riot

Press, 1 May 1980, Page 2

Witnesses describe panic? confusion at Southall riot

NZPA London The nine members of the jury hearing the inquest into the death of Blair Peach will today see for themselves the west London suburban street on which he was fatally injured on April 23 last year. The four women and five men who make up the Coroner’s jury will go to Southall with laywers representing the four parties at the inquest — the Peach family, the Anti-Nazi League, the Metropolitan Police, and the Special Patrol Group. Much of the testimony of the 17 witnesses the jury has heard in the two days of the inquest so far has dealt with precise locations of houses and people on three main streets in Southall, ana various alleys leading off these streets. The visit to the location of the clash between demonstrators and the police. a year ago is designed to give the jury personal knowledge of the area. The jury will return to the Hammersmith Coroner’s Court in the afternoon to continue hearing witnesses. Yesterday the jury again heard of the confusion and panic in the. demonstration. It heard how some witnesses had been themselves beaten by the police, and from one man how the police, had been forced-to shelter behind their riot shields to protect themselves from a “hail of missiles” thrown by a few demonstrators in a crowd of several hundred. Charles Dean said he. and another witness, Neil Martinson, had gone together to the demonstration.

Describing the arrival of a police van in the street where many demonstrators had gathered between two police cordons, Mr Dean said: “He drove straight at them. It was.lucky that noone was killed, and that’s not an- exaggeration.” Mr Dean said he had not seen anything thrown at the police, although he had seen debris, littering the street.. Asked if the police had appeared tp be moving in to try to calm the situation he replied: “They were coming for some sort of physical confrontation.- I didn’t want to be part of that and I ran.”. . Lee Tyler, a student, aged 17, described. how' she had heard a girbup of. Asians, arguing about whether to try to push a police bus over, and seen a stone thrown at the bus window. That had seemed like a signal and other missiles, including a Molotov cocktail, had been, thrown at the bus

which had been driven off. The next thing she had seen was the police dragging a small West Indian boy, aged about 12 or 13, by the hair. “People got quite angry at that and started to throw things again,” she said. A car had had its window smashed but she had not seen any police hit by the missiles. Miss Tyler had then run from the police charge,, had been chased down an alley by a policeman, and had been hit across the cheek and side of the head with a truncheon, knocking her to the ground; The policeman had run on and she had looked up from the ground to see him hitting a man who had his knee raised to protect his groin and his arms above his face and head.

“The policeman was just beating him across the knees with his truncheon.” Cross-examined by Mr Brian Watling, counsel for the Metropolitan Police, Miss Tyler said she had not gone to the police when they were calling for witnesses because she was scared of being arrested. She had hospital treatment for her head injury, but as she was “in care” — a ward of the local authority, living with foster parents — she had not wanted it known that she had attended the demonstration. Several of her friends had also suffered injuries, including stitches to a head wound, in the demonstration. Another demonstrator who testified that he had been beaten by the police, Harry Tait, said the arrival of the van had •: caused “general panic.” As the ' police had come out of the van bearing shields and truncheons, he had with others fled from the scene. Suddenly he had been grabbed from behind in a headlock and thrown to the ground.Spreadeagled on the street he had seen a second policeman thrust his truncheon towards his groin. Mr Tait said he had jerked out of the way and the truncheon had hit him in the pelvis instead. One policeman had said ... “So 'you like Paki (Pakistani) bastards, do you?” and had hit him in the face with hisJitruncheon. Mr Tait said he had protested that he fad ~not done anything, and was hit' again. His nose and lips bleeding, he had been taken to a police van and thrown in the back, where he had seen an injured policeman who

seemed almost unconscious. He had then been dragged out of the van, throw., on to the street and the van had driven off. Cross-examined by Mr Watling, Mr Tait said he had not sought treatment for his facial injuries and had not made a statement to the police until late July — three months after the riot. He had known of the police inquiry but thought it unlikely he could add anything relevant to it. Mr Watling: You had been the victim of a very nasty assault . . . why didn’t you report it? Mr Tait said ,he had not seen any point, as he thought it “highly improbable” he could identify any of the police involved. Although many witnesses said they had either not seen missiles thrown at the police or had seen only a few, Peter Evans said he had seen a “hail of missiles.” Mr Evans told the court he had watched much of the violence from the window of his flat, above the fish shop he owns in Southall. He described seeing shop windows smashed and had seen a ‘‘lighted flare” thrown at the bus in which police had earlier arrived. “I was . wondering, when this was going on, how long it would be before some attempt was made to stop it,” he -said. Soon after, two police vans had arrived, disgorging police into a hail of missiles. “I thought they had fallen into a bit of a trap,” he said.

The police were crouching down sheltering behind their shields when two more vans had approached at speed, and on a signal from one of the officers, had swung round the comer and out of sight. { Mr Evans said he had gone to the back of his flat and had seen police from these vans chasing someone. A few minutes later. he had seen about three policemen returning. • , Cross-examined by counsel for the:. Peach family,- Mr Stephen Sedley, Mr Evans said only a few of the crowd of several hundred appeared to be throwing things. . ■ Asked his reaction when he saw the vans going, round the corner, he - said: f ‘ I thought, -at the time,.anybody who gets in their way, God help them.” . 4 . . . .. Was he surprised to hear the next day that someone — Blair Peach —• had been killed? “Not really, no,” Mr Evans said.’