UK: Racist murderers jailed for life
01 November 1995
In September British Telecom engineer, Peter Thurston, from Leyton, east London, was jailed for life at the Old Bailey for arson, grievous bodily harm and the murder of Donna O'Dwyer. Donna was a 26-year old black woman who had attended a party on the thirteenth floor of a tower block in Leyton when it was firebombed by Thurston, who was dressed in paramilitary combat fatigues and armed with an imitation machine gun. The attack, which ignited the only exit, led to panic when people were unable to escape. Many were seriously injured by the fire and smoke. Donna died after falling from a window in a desperate attempt to escape the flames and reach a neighbouring flat.
Following Donna's death the Leyton Race Attacks Support Group was formed by survivors and supporters. They were convinced that the attack was motivated by racism and there is ample evidence to support their claim. Thurston was a former member of the National Front who constantly referred to black people as "niggers"; he had an extremely violent reputation and several months before the killing he had kicked his way into another flat and attacked two young black children with a baseball bat. His flat contained numerous imitation and decommissioned firearms and hundreds of books on fascism, weapons and bomb making.
Nonetheless, when Thurston's case came to court the Crown Prosecution Service ensured that this evidence was kept from the jury. Disgracefully, the racist motivation for the attack was turned upon itself as the prosecution alleged that the attack took place because of "noise rage" caused by black people holding noisy parties. Thurston was not a racist, it was suggested to the jury, and racism was not the motivation for the attack. This trivialisation received a stamp of approval from judge Michael Coombe who recommended in his summing-up that the local authorities investigate noisy parties thereby sweeping the racist motivation under the carpet.
In a separate trial in October the killer of 60-year old Asian shopkeeper, Mohan Singh Kullar, was jailed for life at Swansea Crown Court (see Statewatch vol 5 no 1). The court was told that Grant Watkins led the gang that launched a drunken attack on Mr Kullar's shop in Cimla, south Wales. The gang fled after the alarm sounded but later returned armed with bricks. When they came across Mr Kullar they attacked him and smashed in his skull. He never recovered consciousness and died in hospital nine days later. Two other men were jailed for manslaughter and violent disorder.
In a press release the Labour MP, Peter Hain, called on the Welsh Office to "act to tackle the problem [of racist violence] which is increasing at a frightening pace in south Wales." He added: "All the evidence suggests that there were over 8,000 racially motivated incidents in South Wales in 1993 alone."
Another incident highlights the problem in south Wales. Sixteen year old Craig Hughes was detained "at Her Majesty's Pleasure" after being found guilty at Cardiff Crown Court in October of stabbing to death Ian Gibbs at an Indian restaurant in Cardiff. Gibbs had intervened to prevent Hughes from screaming racist abuse at the staff of the restaurant; when Gibbs remonstrated with the racist he pulled a knife from his jacket and stabbed him to death.
<>Time Out 4.10.95; Leyton Race Attacks Support Group leaflets (undated); Peter Hain piress release 25.10.95; Western Mail 26.10.95.