Yvonne had been at a house-warming party at my home a few weeks before this fateful day. Yvonne was one of her best mates and part of our circle of friends. My wife at that time served on this same squad. On 17 th April 1984, WPC Yvonne Fletcher was a 25-year-old officer on the Vice Squad at West End Central Police Station. On 17 th April 1984, I was a 27-year-old advanced car driver working in central London in a police traffic car. Three decades later, despite the identity of the killer being known, he remains a free man. It was the day when a friend and colleague was shot and killed. The 17 th of April this year sees the 32nd anniversary of one of the worst days I have ever experienced. One evening, Matt sat at his computer and started to pull these notes together into a work of fiction that he described as having a tremendously cathartic effect. While undergoing treatment, he was encouraged to write about his career and his experiences. Hidden wounds took there toll and in 1999 Matt was discharged from the police with Post Traumatic Stress Disorder. Blown off his feet at the London Baltic Exchange bombing in 1992, and one of the first police officers on the scene of the 1982 Regent’s Park bombing, Matt was also at the Libyan People’s Bureau shooting in 1984 where he escorted his mortally wounded friend and colleague, Yvonne Fletcher, to hospital. Matt served as a solider and Metropolitan Police officer for 25 years. Today it’s my pleasure to welcome Matt Johnson to the CTG blog.
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