Michael Galvin

Michael Galvin, a 23-year-old stallholder, was stabbed to death in the chest on 30 August 1987 at the Notting Hill Carnival on Westbourne Park Road, London, while selling food and drink with his brother and a friend near his house.

Around 4pm a gang of youths (described contemporaneously by police as black youths who had been stealing and pickpocketing) swept through the crowds; one snatched a 40p can of Coke without paying, Galvin chased him, and he was then surrounded by up to eight of them who kicked and punched him until he staggered back clutching a fatal stab wound to the chest and died almost immediately despite first aid from a nearby doctor and nurse.

Alban Turner (then 23, of White City Estate, Shepherd’s Bush) was charged, tried (first trial at the Old Bailey hung; re-trial at Aylesbury Crown Court in December 1988 resulted in a life sentence for the “Coke can killing”), with the key prosecution evidence coming from Kevin Sarbutts, who claimed to have been part of the group, seen Turner throw what looked like a punch/stab, and later heard him boast “I stabbed the white bastard I showed the honky” (or “I stabbed the white bastard”), language that pointed to a racially motivated attack.

That conviction was later overturned on appeal after Sarbutts admitted he had lied entirely: he said he was not at the carnival, did not witness any scuffle or stabbing, and never heard any such boast; he claimed he fabricated the story after being beaten by police (including Detective Sergeant Fitzpatrick) at Shepherd’s Bush station, threatened with jail and harm to his family over outstanding warrants, and paid a £6,500 reward “to keep my mouth shut.”

Turner was released in 1990 after serving about two and a half years; no one else has been successfully convicted, and the killing remains officially unsolved.

Detective Superintendent Malcolm Hackett, who led the investigation, publicly referred to the stabbing of Michael Galvin as having been carried out “by a gang of black youths,” and appeals for witnesses using the same wording.

Rest in peace Michael. You will not be forgotten.