unsolved-murders.co.uk
Unsolved Murders
Tags

John Jeffries

Age: 31

Sex: male

Date: 9 Feb 1996

Place: London Docklands, London

Inam Bashir and John Jeffries died in a bomb explosion at the London Docklands on 9 February 1996.

It was thought that the bomb had consisted of a mixture of Semtex and fertiliser and had weighed up to 1,000lbs and had been detonated by a timing device.

It had gone off at 7.01pm on the Friday evening and created a crater 14 feet wide and more than 20 feet deep and had blown in tens of thousands of windows.

Inam Bashir and John Jeffries had been working in a newspaper kiosk at the time and were hurled by the force of the explosion through a brick wall into a next but one shop.

The bomb had been concealed within a blue Ford Cargo flatbed truck with false number plates and parked in a small service road between two large office blocks next to a parade of shops near South Quay station.

The bomb had been detonated after peace talks between the IRA and the British Government collapsed.

A man was convicted on one charge of conspiracy to cause explosions and sentenced to 25 years, but was released two years later under the terms of the Good Friday Agreement that legislated for the release of IRA prisoners after two years on the condition that they renounce terrorism and give up violence.

He was known as the three thumb print man after police found three thumb prints on various items left of the truck.

The man claimed that he had been duped and had thought that he had been transporting cars from Ulster. It was said that he and another man had driven the lorry to the location where it was detonated.

The man had also been charged with two counts of murder, but the charges were dropped after an allegedly contemptuous report about the case appeared in the Sun Newspaper.

Inam Bashir had run a newspaper kiosk at South Quay.

John Jeffries had been a budding musician from Bromley in Kent and had worked as an assistant to Inam Bashir in his newspaper kiosk.

It was noted that the suspect vehicle had been identified by a policeman who had then started to clear the area before it went off. However, it was also heard that the IRA had sent a warning 90 minutes before, but that the warning itself had not been heeded.

It was reported that the incident had been recorded on CCTV that had been installed around the area and that although the cameras were destroyed, the footage was recorded at remote locations. The police said:

We are analysing it at the moment. There is material from all round the area.

The bombing was referred to as the London Docklands bombing, but also known as the South Quay bombing and the Canary Wharf bombing.

It was estimated to have caused £150 million worth of damage and to have injured more than 100 people.


*map pointers are rough estimates based on known location details as per Place field above.

see www.belfasttelegraph.co.uk

see Daily Mirror - Monday 12 February 1996

see Irish Independent - Monday 12 February 1996

see Western Evening Herald - Monday 12 February 1996

see Halifax Evening Courier - Friday 26 June 1998

see Daily Record - Friday 26 June 1998

see Daily Mirror - Thursday 25 June 1998