John Fordham

John Fordham was stabbed to death whilst carrying out police surveillance at a property in West Kingsdowne, Kent.

Two men were tried for his murder, but acquitted, claiming self-defence.

One of the men, aged 37, tried was noted for later murdering a man on a motorway in a case of road rage. He was also noted for having been involved with the Brink’s-Mat gold bullion robbery on 26 November 1983, in relation to which John Fordham and other undercover detectives had been engaged in a spying operation at his home. The man was later found to have been smelting some of the gold from the robbery at his home.

The police had been working on an investigation called Operation Bullion and had prepared 36 search warrants across the country, one of which included the man's property which was on a 26-acre estate, in West Kingsdowne for which John Fordham and another man, wearing camouflage and balaclava helmets, had been tasked with entering the grounds and spying on the property prior to the Flying Squad conducting their raid. He had been part of Scotland Yard's crack C11 surveillance team which had been watching the man's home for weeks.

There had been snow on the ground at the time and both John Fordham and the other detective had been unarmed. However, within minutes of them entering the grounds they were spotted by three of the man's seven rottweiler dogs. The other detective then retreated to the fence, but John Fordham stayed.

After that, the two men came out of the property and found John Fordham. However, it was disputed as to what then happened, with the men on trial claiming they had acted in self-defence, and the prosecution stating that he was murdered.

John Fordham had been stabbed ten times and died two hours later.

The two men tried had been the property owner and man later convicted of the road rage murder, who was described as a wealthy builder, whilst the other man had been unemployed.

The 37-year-old said that when he went out after hearing his dogs barking that a man, masked and camouflaged, jumped out of the undergrowth and attacked him with a stinging blow across the eye and that thinking that the man was armed, he stabbed him in a blind panic with a knife that he just happened to be carrying. He said:

He said that he didn't know that the man had been a police officer.

He said that when he first saw John Fordham:

He said that when the man fell to the ground that he asked him who he was and that John Fordham told him that he was SAS on manoeuvres and that not once did he say he was a police officer.

He said that when he told him to take off his mask that he saw that he was seriously injured and that he then told his wife to call an ambulance.

The prosecution said:

The man admitted that he had been an illegal dealer in gold, but denied that he had been involved with the Brink’s-Mat robbery. Gold worth up to £80,000 was found on his property

After the court heard all the evidence, the judge told the jury that they had to decide whether the case was one of murder or self-defence.

The judge said:

John Fordham's widow later said:

It was noted that John Fordham's widow stood to win a big cash award if there had been a guilty verdict, however, because the Criminal Injuries Compensation scheme only paid money to victims of a crime of violence, that she would not.

When John Fordham's widow was asked how she felt about the sympathy expressed by the man's wife, she whispered, whilst choking back tears: