Police Officer’s Fatal Blow To Blair Peach Finally Revealed

This entry was posted on Wednesday, April 28th, 2010 at 7:36 pm

A report published on the Metropolitan Police’s website has highlighted the fact that Blair Peach, the anti-fascist protester, was almost certainly killed by a police officer who struck the fatal blow to Peach’s head.

His family and friends have been campaigning for over thirty years to see the report which says it could be ‘”easonably be concluded that a police officer struck the fatal blow”.

Metropolitan police commissioner, Sir Paul Stephenson, said the report “made uncomfortable reading”, however he accepted that the findings which showed that a Metropolitan officer was in all probability responsible for Peach’s death.

Produced by Commander John Cass, the 130 page report revealed that Peach’s death was almost certainly caused by an officer from the elite riot squad as a number of witnesses said they had seen peach struck by a police officer. The report found that “there is no evidence to show he received the injury to the side of his head in any other way”.

Although Cass had “strongly recommend” that three officers be charged with conspiracy to pervert the course of justice as his findings showed how they made a “deliberate attempt to conceal the presence of the carrier at the scene at that time”, not one of the officers were charged.

The controversy over Cass’s report, along with the Met’s resistance to publish any material relating to Peach’s death for nearly thirty years has meant that Celia Stubbs, Peach’s long term partner, has finally received the news, via the report, that her campaign for justice has not been in vane. She said “This report totally vindicates what we have always believed – that Blair was killed by one of six officers from Unit 1 of the Special Patrol Group whose names have been in the public domain over all these years.”

The report highlights the case for actions against the police as it appears that despite overwhelming evidence Peach’s death was caused by police officer/s. Raju Bhatt, Stubb’s lawyer said he was examining the documents but his first reading showed that Cass had attempted to ‘undermine’ evidence that a police officer killed Peach.

He said “What I read in this report is a senior investigating officer desperately trying to explain away this death, but despite himself, he is driven by the weight of the evidence to conclude that the death was caused by one of his officers.”