London police catch suspect after chase

Press, 31 January 1983, Page 9

London police catch suspect after chase

NZPA London The London police trapped Britain’s most wanted man, David Martin, in a subway tunnel and captured him after an underground chase. Only hours before. Scotland Yard had offered a reward of £lOOO (SNZ2I4O) for information leading to his arrest.

The man hunt for Martin, aged 35, who is accused of shooting and wounding a policeman, led to a police ambush earlier this month of a man they mistook for Martin.

Members of Parliament, the press and many other Britons were outraged when the police fired, allegedly without warning, into a car

in a London street, criticallywounding 26-year-old film editor, Stephen Waldorf. London’s police have questioned at least two other people mistaken for Martin. There was no indication that the reward announcement, which had not been published in newspapers, was connected with the arrest, and the police were known to be staked out in a number of areas watching for the suspect. Martin was spotted at the week-end running into the Hampstead underground station, and officers from Scotland Yard’s CII Criminal Intelligence Branch rushed into the station after him.

As Martin fled into the rail

tunnel connecting Hampstead with Belsize Park, the next station on the Northern Lane, London Transport officials switched off the track power and halted trains.

The police said that they had sealed Belsize Park station with men and dogs and pursued the fugitive for about a kilometre through the dimly lit tunnel. No shots were fired. Martin, who sometimes disguised himself as a woman, in long dresses and a long, blonde wig, escaped from police custody last month after being arrested for allegedly shooting and wounding a policeman. He got away by picking a cell lock.