Liddle Towers (19 September 1936 – 9 February 1976) was an electrician and amateur boxing coach from

Chester-le-Street Chester-le-Street () is a market town in County Durham, England. It is located around north of Durham and is close to Newcastle. The town holds markets on Saturdays. In 2021, the town had a population of 23,555. The town's history is ancient; ...

County Durham County Durham, officially simply Durham, is a ceremonial county in North East England.UK General Acts 1997 c. 23Lieutenancies Act 1997 Schedule 1(3). From legislation.gov.uk, retrieved 6 April 2022. The county borders Northumberland and Tyne an ...

England England is a Countries of the United Kingdom, country that is part of the United Kingdom. It is located on the island of Great Britain, of which it covers about 62%, and List of islands of England, more than 100 smaller adjacent islands. It ...

, who died following a spell in police custody in 1976.

Death

Towers was arrested outside the Key Club in

Birtley, Tyne and Wear Birtley is a town in the Metropolitan Borough of Gateshead, in Tyne and Wear, England. It is situated to the south of Gateshead and is conjoined to Chester-le-Street across the county boundary in County Durham. Until 1974, Birtley and the a ...

on 16 January 1976 by PC Goodner. After a struggle he was put into a dog van by six policemen and taken to

Gateshead Gateshead () is a town in the Gateshead Metropolitan Borough of Tyne and Wear, England. It is on the River Tyne's southern bank. The town's attractions include the twenty metre tall Angel of the North sculpture on the town's southern outskirts, ...

police station. Later, at 4 am, he was taken from the station to Queen Elizabeth Hospital because he complained of not feeling well, and, after an examination which apparently revealed no injury and nothing wrong with him, he was taken back to the cells. He was discharged later that morning at 10 o'clock. The taxi driver who took Towers home and his local GP, Alan Powney, who saw him later that day at 2 o'clock, gave evidence that was consistent with Towers' account of his having been assaulted in the cells. Towers told a friend "They gave us a bloody good kicking outside the Key Club, but that was nowt to what I got when I got inside". Towers died on 9 February 1976 at Dryburn Hospital, County Durham. On 8 October 1976, an inquest into his death returned a verdict of

justifiable homicide The concept of justifiable homicide in criminal law is a defense to culpable homicide (criminal or negligent homicide). Generally, there is a burden to produce exculpatory evidence in the legal defense of justification. In most countries, ...

. The case had been reported in the national press and the verdict was widely criticised, causing considerable disquiet over both the integrity of the

Northumbria Police Northumbria Police is a territorial police force in England, responsible for policing the ceremonial counties of Northumberland and Tyne and Wear. It is the largest police force in the North East by geographical area and number of officers. T ...

and of police behaviour and accountability in general. On 3 May 1977, the

Attorney-General In most common law jurisdictions, the attorney general (: attorneys general) or attorney-general (AG or Atty.-Gen) is the main legal advisor to the government. In some jurisdictions, attorneys general also have executive responsibility for law enf ...

, in answer to a Written Question from the MP for Chester-le-Street

Giles Radice Giles Heneage Radice, Baron Radice, (4 October 1936 – 25 August 2022) was a British Labour Party politician and author. He served as a Member of Parliament (MP) from 1973 to 2001, representing part of County Durham, and then as a life peer ...

, said that the DPP had "decided that the evidence was not such as to justify the institution of criminal proceedings against any officer". On 8 July the

Home Secretary The secretary of state for the Home Department, more commonly known as the home secretary, is a senior minister of the Crown in the Government of the United Kingdom and the head of the Home Office. The position is a Great Office of State, maki ...

recorded his refusal to set up an inquiry under the provision of S32 Police Act (1964). The justifiable homicide verdict was appealed and, in June 1978, was set aside by the Queen's Bench Divisional Court, which ordered a new inquest. The second inquest, held in

Bishop Auckland Bishop Auckland ( ) is a market town and civil parishes in England, civil parish at the confluence of the River Wear and the River Gaunless in County Durham, England. It is northwest of Darlington and southwest of Durham, England, Durham. M ...

in October 1978, reached a verdict of death by misadventure. The Towers case was thought to have influenced the outcome of a similar case from 2009 where a newspaper seller, Ian Tomlinson, was also killed by police.

In popular culture

* In 1977, the mod band

The Jam The Jam were an English rock band formed in 1972 in Woking, Surrey, consisting of Paul Weller, Bruce Foxton and Rick Buckler. They released 18 consecutive top 40 singles in the United Kingdom, from their debut in 1977 to their break-up in ...

were critical of the police in their song "Time for Truth" which contains the lyric "Bring forward the six pigs, We wanna see them swing so high" and a shout of "Liddle Towers". * The following year, punk band the

Angelic Upstarts Angelic Upstarts are an English punk rock / Oi! band formed in South Shields in 1977. AllMusic calls them "one of the period's most politically charged and thought-provoking groups". Angelic Upstarts Biography AllMusic. accessed 3 July 2006 The ...

released a single entitled "The Murder of Liddle Towers" in 1978. * 1978 also saw the release of the single "Justifiable Homicide", by

Sex Pistols The Sex Pistols are an English punk rock band formed in London in 1975. Although their initial career lasted just two and a half years, they became culturally influential in popular music. The band initiated the punk movement in the United Ki ...

producer Dave Goodman. * The

Tom Robinson Band Tom Robinson Band (TRB) are a British Rock music, rock band, established in 1976 by singer, songwriter and bassist Tom Robinson. The band's debut single "2-4-6-8 Motorway" was a top five hit on the UK Singles Chart in 1977, and their third sin ...

dedicated their 1979 album, ''

TRB Two ''TRB Two'' – also known as ''TRB2'' – is the second studio album by Tom Robinson Band. It was recorded days after the original drummer, Dolphin Taylor, left the band. The TRB disbanded four months after its release. Steve Ridgeway designed th ...

'' to Mary Towers, the mother of Liddle Towers. The song " Blue Murder" on this album relates to the death of Towers. * British Skinhead band The Crux (not the US band) also did a song called "Liddle Towers" about the incident.

Notes

External links

World in Action TV Series
{{DEFAULTSORT:Towers, Liddle Deaths in police custody in the United Kingdom 1936 births 1976 deaths People from Chester-le-Street