Age: 25
Sex: female
Date: 17 Apr 1984
Place: Libyan Embassy, St Jamess Square, London
Yvonne Fletcher was shot outside the Libyan Embassy in St James Square in London on 17 April 1984.
She had been deployed to monitor a demonstration against the Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi when two unknown people in the embassy fired out of the first floor of the embassy with Sterling submachine guns into the demonstors.
Yvonne Fletcher was hit and killed. Eleven demonstrators were also hit.
The Libyan Embassy was known as the People's Bureau.
The demonstration related to the public executions of two students at the University of Tripoli in Libya. It was described as a small demonstration, two two groups of protesters, pro-ghaddafia nd anti-Ghaddafi groups facing each other off, with police between them.
It was noted that the diplomats had discussed the protests and had considered thre options for dealing with it:
In fact they tried the third option, and met with the the Foreign and Commonwealth Office to complain about the demonstration, but they were told that nothing could be done to prevent it, but that the Metropolitan Police would be informed.
As a result, embassy staff discussed the matter with Tripoli, who then authorised the use of firearms. It was noted that the messages exchanged were in fact intercepted and decrypted, but not in time to avoid the shooting. It was said that the dealy was because GCHQ only worked 9 to 5, office hours.
It was also heard that a Libyan from the embassy told a workman outside that there were guns in the embassy and that there would be firing that day. It was also stated that the workman informed the police, but that they didn't do anything about it.
the pro-Ghaadfi protesters were arrgned by the embassy, and international television crews were invited by the Libyans.
The shooting took place at 10.18am on 17 April 1984.
It was thought that firing had taken place from two vantage poins, both on the first floor, with one gunman firing at a level tragectory, over the proesters heads, but the other firing directly into the protesters.
The bullet that hit Yvonne Fletcher entered through her back, 10in below her shoulder and passed through her body before coming out at her side and entering her left elbow. The passage of the bullet travelled right to left, through her thoracic diaphragm, liver and gall bladder before being deflected by her spinal column and exiting through the left side of her body.
Yvonne Fletcher was then taken to hospital, and whilst she was being transferred from an ambulance into westminster Hospital, a single spent round of ammunition fell from her uniform.
It was noted that the garages to the rear of the embassy were not secured for ten minutes and thought that a number of people escaped through it, some of whom had no diplomatic immunity and could have been arested.
Following the murder, the embassy was sieged for 11 days by armed police, after which the occupants were expelled from the country and the United Kingdom severed diplomatic relations with Libya.
During the seige, the British embassy in Tripoli was surrounded members of the Revolutionary Guard Corps, trapping 25 staff there.
There was also a bombing campaign in the UK, with five bombs being planted, although only one went off, that being at Heathrow Aiorport at Terminal Two.
Diplomatic relations were later restored in 1999 when agreement was reached over the the trial of the Lockerbie bombers and the Libyan government admitted 'general responsibility' for Yvonne Fletcher's death.
It was noted that when the staff of the embassy left, that they could not be questioned over the shooting due to their diplomatic status.
Once the diplomats left the embassy, it was searched, and 4,367 rounds of ammunition, three semi-automatic pistols, four .38 revolvers and magazines for Sterling submachine guns were found.
Yvonne Fletcher's inquest returned the verdcit that she was killed by a bullet coming from one of two windows on the west side of the front on the first floor of the Libyan People's Bureau.
It was noted that diplomats were protected under the 1961 Vienna Convention on Diplomatic Relations which stated that diplomats were protected from prosecution for any crime unless the diplomat's home country waived their right to immunity, and that both the UK and Libya had signed up for and that all a host country could do was demand that a diplomate leave the country.
There were said to have been 30 staff in the embassy at the time of the shooting, but it was later suggested that the actual gunman had been a pro-Gaddafi student, who after firing the shots out of the window, andwho had left the embassy via a backdoor before it was surrounded by the police.
In March 2011 a man was arrested by Libyan rebels on suspicion of Yvonne Fletcher's murder. He denied having been a gunman, although he admitted that he had been working in the embassy at the time of the shooting. He said that he had been in police custody at the time having been arrested before the protest after quarrelling with a police officer and that he was told of the shooting whilst he was in police cstody.
It was also stated in 2007 by a senior Canadian lawyer that the gunmen could have been junior diplomat who had been seen by a witness seen firing a weapon from the embassy window. The lawyer added that two other men, both named, neither of whom had had diplomatic immunity, had escaped from the embasy through a garage door immediately after the shooting and that there was a case agaisnt each of them for conspiracy to murder.
The Crown Prosecution Service dropped a case agaisnt one of the suspects in 2017 because some of the evidence against him could not be used in court because it related to secret national security matters.
In April 2024 it was reported that one of Yvonne Fletcher's colleagues was preparing to launch a private prosecution against a man who was described as the last remaining key suspect for murder. The man was sued in 2019 for damages in the High Court relating ot the matter and although he denied any wrongdoing, he was found jointly liable for the shootings, even though he had not been the gunman, and the policeman that brought the charge was awarded a symbolic £1 in damages. However, it was noted that the ruling could pave the way for the more serious allegation of murder to be made in a private criminal prosecution.
