Metropolitan Police Service - Notable Incidents and Investigations

Notable Incidents and Investigations

Notable major incidents and investigations in which the MPS has been involved include:

• 1888–1891: Whitechapel murders: Suspected to have been carried out by Jack the Ripper who killed at least five prostitutes. No suspect was ever charged with the murders, and the identity of the killer remains unknown.
• 1911: Siege of Sidney Street: Members of a Latvian gang took a couple hostage on 2 January 1911 after an unsuccessful attempt to rob a jeweller's; Home Secretary Winston Churchill later arrived at the scene and authorised a detachment of Scots Guards to assist police from the Tower of London.
• 1970-1990s: Provisional IRA bombing campaign: Throughout the last quarter of the 20th century, a number of bombings were carried out by the Provisional Irish Republican Army. A list of bombings carried out within the Metropolitan Police District, and those planted in central London, can be found here.
• 1975: Balcombe Street Siege: From 6 to 12 December 1975, Provisional IRA members took a couple hostage in their home, while on the run from police.
• 1975: Spaghetti House siege: The Spaghetti House siege occurred on 18 September 1975 when alleged members of the Black Liberation Army attempted to commit an armed robbery at the Spaghetti House restaurant to gain publicity for their cause. However, the robbery was discovered by police, and the would-be robbers initiated a siege by taking hostages.
• 1975: Moorgate tube crash: A London Underground train failed to stop and crashed into the buffers at the end of a tunnel, resulting in the largest loss of life during peacetime on the Tube with over 42 people killed.
• 1976: Notting Hill Carnival riot: After MPS officers attempted to arrest an alleged pickpocket at the Notting Hill Carnival on 30 August 1976, a riot ensued leading to over 100 officers being admitted to hospital.
• 1978–1983: Muswell Hill murders: Serial killer Dennis Nilsen murdered at least 15 men and boys over a period of five years. He was known for retaining corpses for sex acts, and disposing of body parts by burning them or dumping them in drains. Some remains were found in his home at Muswell Hill when MPS officers apprehended him.
• 1979: Death of Blair Peach: Teacher Peach was fatally injured in April 1979 during a demonstration in Southall by the Anti-Nazi League against a National Front election meeting taking place in the town hall. He was knocked unconscious and died the next day in hospital. Police brutality was never proven to be a contributory factor in his death, but it was claimed that he had fallen to a blow from a rubberised police radio belonging to the MPS's now disbanded Special Patrol Group. In 2010, a police report was disclosed which stated that it was likely an MPS officer "struck the fatal blow" and attributed "grave suspicion" to one unnamed officer, who it says may also have been involved in a cover-up along with two colleagues.
• 1980: Iranian Embassy Siege: Members of a terrorist group calling themselves the Democratic Revolutionary Movement for the Liberation of Arabistan (DRMLA) took staff hostage in the Iranian embassy. The MPS were heavily involved in negotiations but after six days they were terminated, and the British Army's Special Air Service (SAS) stormed the building. Five separatists and one hostage died.
• 1981: Brixton riot: – During the early 1980s the MPS began Operation Swamp which was implemented to cut street crime by the use of the Sus law which legally allowed officers to stop people on the suspicion of wrongdoing. Tensions rose within the black community after a black youth was stabbed, leading to severe rioting on 11 April 1981.
• 1982–86: The Railway Rapists: John Duffy and David Mulcahy committed 18 rapes of women and young girls at or near railway stations in London and South East England, murdering three of their victims. MPS officers and The British Transport Police worked with neighbouring forces to solve the crimes. Duffy was convicted in 1988, but Mulcahy was not brought to justice until almost ten years later.
• 1985: Brixton riot: Rioting erupted in Brixton on 28 September 1985, sparked by the shooting of Dorothy Groce by police seeking her son Michael Groce in relation to a suspected firearms offence who believed to be hiding in his mother's home. He was not there at the time, and Groce was part-paralysed by the bullet.
• 1985: Broadwater Farm riot: A week after the Brixton riot, while tensions among the black community were still high, riots broke out in Tottenham, north London, after the mother of a black man whose house was being searched died of a heart attack during the operation. During the riot, PC Keith Blakelock was murdered. Blakelock's murder remains unsolved.
• 1986: The Stockwell Strangler: Kenneth Erskine carried out a series of attacks in Stockwell on elderly men and women, breaking into their homes and strangling them to death. Most were sexually assaulted before being murdered. In 2009, Erskine's murder convictions were reduced to manslaughter on the grounds of diminished responsibility after an appeal.
• 1987: King's Cross fire: MPS officers assisted The British Transport Police when a fire broke out under a wooden escalator leading from one of the Underground station platforms to the surface at King's Cross. The blaze and resulting smoke claimed 31 lives, including that of a senior firefighter.
• 1988: Clapham Junction rail crash: MPS officers assisted The British Transport Police when a packed commuter train passed a defective signal and ran into the back of a second train, derailing it into the path of a third oncoming train. 35 people were killed and 69 injured.
• 1989: Marchioness disaster: The pleasure boat Marchioness was struck by a dredger and sank, killing 30 people.
• 1990: Poll Tax Riots: Rioting triggered by growing unrest against the Community Charge, and grew from a legitimate demonstration which had taken place earlier. An estimated £400,000 worth of damage was caused.
• 1993: The Gay Slayer: Former soldier Colin Ireland tortured and murdered five gay men in a deliberate bid to gain notoriety (he had read an article that said to be a 'serial killer' one must have killed five times or more). Ireland was given a whole-life tariff in 1993 and died in prison on 21 February 2012.
• 1993: Murder of Stephen Lawrence: A series of operations failed to convict the killers of schoolboy Stephen Lawrence, despite substantial evidence. The resulting MacPherson inquiry found that the MPS was "institutionally racist". Two men, Gary Dobson and David Norris, were convicted on 3 January 2012 for their role in Lawrence's murder. Their trial was based on newly-discovered forensic evidence, following a cold case review in 2007 which found a tiny spec of Lawrence's blood on a jacket belonging to Dobson and one of Lawrence's hairs on trousers belonging to Norris. The pair were sentenced to life imprisonment, with a minimum term of 15 years 2 months for Dobson and 14 years 3 months for Norris.
• 1995: Brixton riot: A large gathering protested outside Brixton police station over the death of a local man in police custody, leading to a riot. Three police officers were injured and a two-mile exclusion zone was set up around Brixton. Later reports showed that the male in custody died of heart failure, said to be brought on because of difficulties restraining him.
• 1999: The London Nailbomber: David Copeland carried out a series of hate attacks on ethnic minority areas and on a pub frequented by the gay community.
• 1999: Carnival Against Capitalism: Previously peaceful anti-capitalist demonstrations ended with disorder in the City of London, which caused widespread damage, particularly to businesses identified with global capitalism.
• 2001: May Day protest: In an attempt to control crowds, the MPS employed the tactic of "kettling", and were criticised for detaining innocent bystanders for long periods of time.
• 2001: Thames murder case: The dismembered body of a young boy believed to have been between the ages of four and seven was spotted floating in the River Thames, named by police as Adam in the absence of a confirmed identity. During the investigation a police commander and a detective chief inspector met with Nelson Mandela. The case was never solved.
• 2004: Pro-hunting protests: Demonstrators protesting against the Hunting Act 2004 outside parliament were involved in violent confrontations with the MPS.
• 2005: 7 July bombings: Four suicide bombings across London, in which MPS officers worked to a major incident plan to provide coordination, control and forensic and investigative resources.
• 2005: 21 July attempted bombings and death of Jean Charles de Menezes: Multiple attempted bombings across London, in which MPS officers worked to a similar plan to that used two weeks previously. In the aftermath of these events, Jean Charles de Menezes was mistakenly targeted as a potential terrorist and shot dead in a deployment of Operation Kratos.
• 2006: Transatlantic aircraft bomb plot: Alleged plot to detonate liquid explosives on transatlantic aircraft and other related terrorist activities by militant Islamists were foiled by British police, including MPS officers.
• 2006: Operation Mokpo: Officers from Operation Trident made the MPS's largest ever seizure of firearms after a series of raids in Dartford, Kent.
• 2007: Attempted car bombings: Attempted car bombings in central London. One of the devices, in a car outside a nightclub, was initially reported by a London Ambulance Service paramedic dealing with an unrelated incident nearby. MPS bomb disposal officers defused this device and another located in an underground car park. Subsequent investigation led to convictions of those involved.

• 2008: National Black Police Association boycott: Declared against the police force on the grounds of racial discrimination. This followed high profile controversies involving high-ranking black officers, including allegations of racism made by Tarique Ghaffur – the highest ranking Asian officer in the MPS – against commissioner Ian Blair.
• 2009: G-20 summit protests and the death of Ian Tomlinson: The MPS used the "kettling" technique to contain large numbers of demonstrators during the G-20 protests. Ian Tomlinson, a bystander to the protests, died from internal bleeding after he was struck with a baton and pushed to the ground by a police constable of the Territorial Support Group. The jury at the inquest into Tomlinson's death returned a verdict of unlawful killing and the officer who pushed Tomlinson was later acquitted of manslaughter. Following a separate incident, a sergeant in the Territorial Support Group was suspended after being filmed striking a woman's face with his hand and her leg with a baton, but he was later cleared of any wrongdoing.

• 2010: Pope Benedict XVI's visit: In September 2010, Pope Benedict XVI became the first pope to undertake a state visit to the UK. Around 10,000 people demonstrated on the streets of London when the pope's tour of England and Scotland arrived in the capital.
• 2011: Anti-cuts protest: 201 people were arrested, and 66 were injured, including 31 police officers, as up to 500,000 people demonstrated in central London against planned public spending cuts. It was described as the largest protest in the United Kingdom since the 15 February 2003 anti-Iraq War protest and the largest union-organised rally in London since the Second World War.
• 2011: Conviction of the Night Stalker: Operation Minstead concluded after 12 years on 24 March 2011 with the conviction of the Night Stalker. Delroy Grant raped and assaulted elderly victims over a period of 17 years from 1992 to 2009 across south London, Kent and Surrey. He was found guilty of 29 charges, including burglaries, rapes and sexual assaults, but MPS officers linked him to over 200 different offences during the 1990s and 2000s. Grant was given four life sentences and ordered to serve a minimum of 27 years in prison.
• 2011: Wedding of Prince William and Kate Middleton: About 5,000 MPS officers were deployed to police the wedding of Prince William and Kate Middleton at Westminster Abbey on 29 April 2011. In advance of the event, assistant commissioner Lynne Owens said: "People who want to come to London to peacefully protest can do that but they must remember that it is a day of national celebration". Approximately one hundred people were pre-emptively arrested in advance of the wedding and were detained without charge for the duration of the wedding, with the apparent aim of suppressing protest. Other protestors were arrested on the day of the wedding; some were detained at railway stations on arrival. The Metropolitan Police said that one million people were present in London to watch the wedding procession.
• 2006–2011: News International phone hacking scandal: Part of the scandal revolves around the allegations that some police officers accepted payment from journalists in exchange for information.
• 2011: Citywide riots: Dozens of officers were injured in a series of public disturbances initially in the Tottenham area, following an incident in which a suspect was shot dead by MPS officers. The MPS launched Operation Withern, a major investigation into the disturbances which spread into many other areas of the city and included instances of arson and looting.