Blair Peach - The Cass Report and Inquest

The Cass Report and Inquest

I am of the opinion that if a person remains part of a crowd who are throwing missiles, that is collective support and guilt by presence

John Cass, Commander of the Metropolitan Police Service. Commander Cass' report did not find that the same sort of collective responsibility for Peach's death lay with the police.

A team of 30 detectives from the Metropolitan Police, headed by Commander John Cass, conducted an internal investigation of Peach's death. The pathologist's report indicated that Peach's broken skull was not the result of being struck by a truncheon, and he suggested Peach may have been struck by a lead weighted rubber cosh or hosepipe filled with lead shot; unauthorised weapons. Cass' investigation of the Met's Special Patrol Group (SPG) headquarters unearthed a hoard of unauthorised weapons, including various illegal truncheons and knives, two crowbars, a whip, a 3 ft wooden stave, and a lead-weighted leather stick. An officer was discovered attempting to dispose of a metal cosh; however, it was proven not to be the weapon that killed Peach. Another officer was discovered to be a Nazi supporter. It was also uncovered that one officer present at the riots, who was clean shaven on 23 April, decided to grow a beard, whilst another shaved off his moustache which he had sported on 23 April, the day of Peach's death. Another officer refused to participate in an identity parade, and all the police officers' uniforms had been dry cleaned before they were to be inspected.

Cass' reports were leaked and it was reported that he had narrowed down the suspects to six SPG officers, one of whom he believed to have killed Peach. It was claimed by activists that the coroner, Doctor John Burton, dismissed reports that Peach was killed by an officer even before the inquest had finished. He also refused to let any of the details from the Cass Report to be submitted as evidence. Burton then wrote various letters to the Home Secretary, Lord Chancellor and Attorney General, attacking what he believed to be a well organised fabrication being spread about the death of Peach. The letters accused media organisations such as the BBC for promoting what he called "biased propaganda". He continued by pouring scorn onto the witnesses statements, stating that some were "totally politically committed to the Socialist Workers Party" and dismissed their evidence as a mere "fabrication". He also stated, referencing some of the Sikh witnesses, that they "did not have experience of the English system" to give reliable evidence. In contrast, Burton showed sympathy to the various police officers who gave evidence, despite their inconsistencies. Burton's behaviour was described by one Home Office official as "extremely irate", and he resisted calls for the inquest to have a jury until he was forced by the court of appeal. Burton was concerned that the inquest might be hijacked by the "extreme left". The inquest jury returned a verdict of death by misadventure on 27 May 1980, prompting Peach's girlfriend, Celia Stubbs, to claim the police constable who allegedly administered the fatal blows had got off "scot-free". She continued to campaign for many years, unsuccessfully, for a public inquiry into his death. Eleven witnesses said they had seen members of the SPG hit Peach. After the inquest Burton wrote a large article entitled The Blair Peach Inquest - the Unpublished Story and attempted to publish it until he was convinced by civil servants that the report would "discredit the impartiality of coroners in general and Dr Burton in particular".

In June 2009, the Metropolitan Police Authority decided to publish the original internal police inquiry into Blair Peach's death by the end of the year. As of December 2009, the Crown Prosecution Service was reviewing the internal report and said it would advise police as to whether further action should be taken.

The reports into the death of Blair Peach were published on the Metropolitan Police website on 27 April 2010. The conclusion was that Blair Peach was killed by a police officer, but that the other police officers in the same unit had refused to cooperate with the inquiry by lying to investigators, making it impossible to identify the actual killer.