Nicholas Thompson

Nicholas Thompson was stabbed to death after complaining that his chips were soggy at a chip shop on 27 October 1985.

He was stabbed in the heart and found dead in a nearby alleyway off Berners Row.

Nicholas Thompson had been out drinking with his brother during the evening and later went into the Angel Food Bar in Upper Street, Islington where they were said to have annoyed both the staff and the customers. They complained that their chips were soggy and were given a 50p refund. However, when they left one of them kicked over a sign outside the takeaway.

It was said then that a man followed them out with a knife that he picked up in the takeaway and in a street fight outside he stabbed Nicholas Thompson twice, once through the heart and another through his ribs.

However, it was noted that when the police began their enquiries they came up against a wall of silence. The owner of the takeaway restaurant, who lived in Cambridge, said that there had been no trouble in the takeaway. Further, other customers and staff also told a whole series of lies, including the fact that the main suspect had not been there.

It was heard that for a time the police thought that Nicholas Thompson's brother was the murderer, however, they later arrested the other man, a cab driver, however, when they questioned witnesses they were met with silence, with five people saying they had not been there at the time, and as such they were unable to press charges.

The police said that whilst the man concerned was only a suspect and that they were not saying he was the murderer, that he would have otherwise stood trial. A QC at the trial of the takeaway owner and seven other people charged with perjury said:

The man that had been acting as the manager of the takeaway at the time was convicted of perverting the course of justice after it was found that he had lied when he had claimed that he was never in the restaurant at the time and saw nothing. It was said that his lies had thrown off the police in their murder investigation with the result being that the murderer was never caught.

Four other people, three men and a woman, were cleared.

The people acquitted of perjury said that detectives had exacted false confessions using violence and intimidation.

Nicholas Thompson had been from Skibbereen in Ireland.