Bullet ‘from bureau’

Press, 12 May 1984, Page 11

Bullet ‘from bureau’

NZPA-PA London An inquest jury in London decided yesterday that Constable Yvonne Fletcher had been unlawfully killed by a bullet fired from inside the Libyan People’s Bureau. She was shot in a threesecond burst from one of two Sterling submachine guns fired from the embassy on a group of demonstrators who were protesting against the Libyan regime of Colonel Muammar Gadaffi. After retiring for 91

minutes at Westminster Coroner’s Court the jury said in its written verdict, that Yvonne Joyce Fletcher died from a firearm wound to the abdomen at around 10.20 a.m. on Tuesday, April 17, 1984, near the north-east corner of St James’s Square, London SWI. “She was killed by a bullet coming from one of two windows on the west side of the front on the first floor of the Libyan People’s Bureau at No 5 St James’s Square, London, SW, and the conclusion of the jury as to the death is that she was

unlawfully killed.” When the jury left to consider its verdict, Commander William Hucklesby, head of Scotland Yard’s anti-terrorist branch, told reporters that the police had 400 lines of inquiry to investigate. “The matter is still very sensitive but the inquiry will continue. We have a lot of hard work to do,” he said. One “vital” line being followed was an attempt to trace the origin of the guns found when the Libyan authorities searched the British Embassy in Tripoli.