6 October 1985
PC Keith Blakelock, a beat bobby sent to protect firefighters attending a riot on Tottenham’s Broadwater Farm estate, stumbles while retreating from a mob carrying knives and machetes. As colleagues try to drag him to safety, they discover a 6 inch kitchen knife embedded in his neck. Blakelock later dies at North Middlesex hospital.
7 October 1985
The riot was sparked by anger over the death of Cynthia Jarrett, a local black woman who collapsed and died of a heart attack after the Metropolitan Police raided her Tottenham home. In the hours after her death there were rumours of police brutality.
8 October 1985
Bernie Grant, then leader of Haringey council, is heavily criticised for saying that “the police got a bloody good hiding", when asked about the riot.
11 October 1985
Police arrest a local greengrocer, Winston Silcott, for Blakelock’s murder, along with three youths (who were later acquitted). Silcott is suspected of being a ringleader of the riot. Later, Engin Raghip and Mark Braithwaite, also accused of being part of the mob that attacked Blakelock, are charged.
19 March 1987
All three men are convicted at the Old Bailey for Blakelock's killing and jailed for a minimum of 30 years, despite defence claims that police had "bent rules" to get confessions.
11 June 1989
The Oxford University student union demands a royal pardon for Winston Silcott as support for the “Tottenham Three” grows.
25 Nov 1991
An appeal court quashes Silcott’s conviction as new evidence casts doubt on the way police obtained confessions from the men. Braithwaite and Raghip were later freed but Silcott remained in prison as he was serving a life sentence for another offence.
5 September 1993
Silcott, although cleared of murdering Blakelock, spoke to the Observer about his struggles to clear his name.
27 July 1994
Campaigners were disappointed when Det Ch Supt Graham Melvin and his assistant, Det Insp Maxwell Dingle, were unanimously cleared of conspiring to pervert the course of justice in connection to the conviction of Silcott. Both detectives were acquitted of all charges by a jury.
24 July 2013
Twenty eight years after the murder, following several new investigations and fresh arrests, the police have a new suspect. The Crown Prosecution Service announces that Nicholas Jacobs, who was 16 at the time of the Broadwater Farm riots in 1985, is to stand trial for Blakelock's murder.
9 April 2014
Nicky Jacobs found not guilty of stabbing PC Keith Blakelock to death during the Broadwater Farm riots.
