DC Michael Swindells
1959 – 2004
Birmingham, West Midlands
Perpetrator
DC Michael Swindells, QGM, a 44 year old Detective Constable with West Midlands Police, was stabbed to death on 21 May 2004 while on duty in Birmingham.
A former Royal Engineers lance corporal who had served 14 years in the force, he was pursuing a violent suspect — Glaister Earl Butler, a 49-year-old paranoid schizophrenic — along the towpath of the Tame Valley Canal.
Butler had earlier threatened a carpenter and members of the public with a large kitchen knife. Knowing the man was armed, Swindells and colleagues chased him over half a mile; during the confrontation, Butler stabbed Swindells once in the chest, the blade penetrating his heart.
Colleagues gave first aid, but he was pronounced dead on arrival at hospital. Butler was later arrested and convicted of manslaughter on grounds of diminished responsibility.
Swindells was posthumously awarded the Queen’s Gallantry Medal for his bravery in tackling the armed suspect to protect the public. A memorial stands on the canal towpath at Salford Bridge Wharf in Aston.
Rest in peace Michael. You will not be forgotten.