1984 Libyan Embassy Siege

1984 Libyan Embassy Siege

WPC Yvonne Joyce Fletcher (15 June 1958 – 17 April 1984) was a British police officer fatally shot during a protest outside the Libyan embassy at St. James's Square, London, in 1984. Fletcher, who had been on duty and deployed to police the protest, died shortly afterwards at Westminster Hospital. Her death resulted in the Metropolitan Police Service laying siege to the embassy for the next eleven days, and the United Kingdom severing all diplomatic relations with Libya. Two years later it became a major factor in Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher's decision to allow U.S. President Ronald Reagan to launch the U.S. bombing of Libya in 1986 from American bases in the United Kingdom.

No one has ever been convicted for the murder of Yvonne Fletcher. However, in 1999, the government of Muammar Gaddafi accepted responsibility for her death and agreed to pay compensation to her family.

In just an 18-month period, Fletcher's death became the third murder or manslaughter of an on-duty policewoman in mainland Britain.