Police Pay Tribute to PC Stephen Tibble

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Officer was killed 38 years ago in West Kensington

Borough Commander Lucy D'Orsi joined senior police officers in Charleville Road in West Kensington on Tuesday at 11am to pay tribute to PC Stephen Tibble who was killed on February 26, 1975 at the age of just 22.

The police, including members of the Mounted Branch, were joined by local people to see Hammersmith and Fulham's youngest serving officer lay flowers at the memorial to Constable Tibble.

PC Tibble was shot at point blank range on the corner of Charleville and Gledstanes Roads by Liam Quinn, an American member of the Irish Republican Army who was fleeing from police after being found behaving suspiciously in the area.

PC Tibble, who was married and had been in the police service for just six months, died in hospital three hours later.

Police found that the house in Fairholme Road Quinn had been seen entering contained a bomb factory. Quinn, one of a six man IRA team which also included the infamous Balcombe Street gang escaped to Dublin where he served a sentence for IRA membership before returning to San Francisco.

After being arrested in 1981 by the FB, he fought a long battle against extradition to the UK. He was finally extradited in 1988 and was tried and found guilty of murder.

Quinn was sentenced to life in prison in 1988, and served eleven years in Portaloise prison before he was released in April 1999, along with the rest of the Balcombe Street gang, under the terms of the Good Friday Agreement.

Yesterday, the local police twitter feed @MPSHammFul took time out from reporting on crime to concentrate on the memorial to the "brave officer" who made "the ultimate sacrifice."

The message on the flowers, meanwhile said: " We can never thank you enough for your commitment and heroism. Very sincerely, all at Hammersmith and Fulham Police."

 

February 27, 2013