Trauma endures after Broadwater Farm riot

This week I interviewed one of the bravest and most dignified men I have ever encountered.

Richard Coombes was one of the police officers brutally attacked alongside PC Keith Blakelock during the Broadwater Farm Estate riots in North London in 1985.

PC Blakelock was hacked to death by a baying mob, who stabbed him repeatedly. Richard was struck by a machete blow to the face and only survived because a young constable managed to crawl on top of him and protect them both with his riot shield.

It was a horrendous attack on an ill-equipped and undermanned group of police officers who were trying to help a fire crew attempting to put out a blaze on the estate.

A 350-strong mob armed with knives, bricks, bottles and petrol bombs attacked the nine police officers and murdered PC Blakelock.

This week Nicky Jacobs walked free after being cleared of PC Blakelock’s killing.

The trial was a traumatic time for all of those caught up in the riots, especially PC Blakelock’s widow Elizabeth, who fled the courtroom in tears after the not guilty verdict and also for Richard Coombes and his wife Pauline.

Richard told me that he still finds it difficult to sleep at night as he often has nightmares about the attack. He still has a deep scar on his face from being struck, shown left. His jaw was broken in two places and he had five stab wounds to his neck.

Richard suffers from post-traumatic stress, and still receives pain-killing morphine to cope with the agony in his neck and back. He also has brain damage and short term memory loss.

He witnessed PC Blakelock being butchered and heard the rioters screaming “kill the pigs”. He honestly thought he was going to die. It was deeply moving talking to him and many of the production team and crew were near tears.

Richard was discharged from the force six years after the attacks and received the Queen’s Gallantry Medal. He wasn’t able to testify in the trial as medics were worried about the emotional effect it would have on him.

Life has been very tough for Richard and Pauline. Their son was only weeks old when his dad was attacked.

Their very happy, ordinary lives were shattered by the events of almost 30 years ago, and it is to their credit that they have not become bitter, but have tried very hard to make the best of a terrible situation.

Richard was helped by PC Blakelock’s widow Elizabeth who always reassured the officers who were attacked that she knows they did their very best to try to save her husband.

After botched arrests which led to those convicted being set free in the late ’80s, it now looks as though no one will be ever held to account for the murder.

This means Elizabeth, Richard and his family and all of those whose lives were shattered by the riots will carry the physical and mental scars until the day they die.