LONDON Two brothers have been found guilty of the 1984 murder of British civil servant Anthony Littler. Littler was killed as he walked home on 1 May 1984.
Brothers Michael Stewart, 57, and Anthony Stewart, 60, were aged 15 and 18 when the crime took place. The ambushed Littler in an alley way in East Finchley. On Monday they were both found guilty of murder following a trial at the Old Bailey. Both men had denied any involvement.
On 1 May 1984, in the early hours of the morning, Mr Littler, 45, was attacked in an alleyway on his way home from East Finchley Tube Station. He died at the scene, having suffered two fractures to the skull, one of which was associated with catastrophic underlying brain injury.
The Crown Prosecution Service’s dedicated London Homicide Unit worked closely with police to build a compelling case to present to the jury and secure their convictions.
This included using evidence from the time of the attack, as well as newer evidence gathered through a police operation, and by piecing together admissions both brothers had made to associates over decades.
Samantha Yelland, of the Crown Prosecution Service, said the attack was unprovoked.
“More than 40 years ago, Anthony Littler was targeted and killed in an unprovoked and brutal attack whilst walking home by Michael and Anthony Stewart.
“For decades, his family and loved ones have had to live without answers, and now, finally, those responsible have been brought to justice. Sadly, many who waited so long for those answers have since passed away. No verdict can undo the suffering Anthony’s family and friends have endured, but I hope today’s outcome can bring some measure of closure to those who continue feeling the effects of this loss.
“This has been a complex and challenging case. After a reinvestigation uncovered further evidence, we were able to carefully review the case and robustly pursue a prosecution.
“Despite the passage of time and their repeated denials, our specialist prosecutors, working in close collaboration with the Metropolitan Police, were able to draw multiple strands of old and new evidence together to build a compelling case to present to a jury and prove their guilt.”
Reopening a cold case
Following the emergence of new evidence, a fresh investigation was launched in 2022, providing the evidential basis needed to proceed with a prosecution.
Historic evidence, including postmortem records, witness statements, train timings, and call logs to the emergency services, had been preserved and were used alongside new evidence to build the strongest possible case about what happened to Littler on the night he was killed.
The case was featured in an episode of Crimewatch on BBC in 1984, which showed the location as it appeared at the time. Stills from the programme were shown to the jury so they could see the scene as it looked then.
The fatal attack
Evidence from 1 May 1984 showed that Littler’s train arrived at the station on time at 12.18am. The station foreman witnessed him leaving and said goodnight to him as he walked out to make his way home.
Minutes later, a call was made to the emergency services from a nearby public phone box. The caller said a man was seriously injured near the station but gave no personal details, no precise location, and quickly hung up. No injured person was found in the immediate vicinity, and the call was stood down at 12.40am.
Anthony Littler’s body was discovered shortly afterwards in a nearby alleyway by a couple. One remained with him while another ran to call the emergency services from a public phone box. That call was made at 12.58am and a police officer arrived at the scene soon after.
The prosecution argued that the timing of the first 999 call meant that whoever made it must have been present in the alleyway when Mr Littler was attacked and was keen to leave the area as quickly as possible. The evidence suggested that it was Michael who made this call – a fact he later appeared to confirm himself, telling an associate: “I called the old bill.”
Younger brother came forward to police
Police got their breakthrough in the case when younger brother Daniel came forward and revealed that his brothers had admitted to be responsible for Littler’s death. He reported his brothers after a family falling out.
It still took police several years police many more years to build up the evidence brief to bring the case to court.
Bad character evidence
Evidence of a defendant’s previous misconduct is known as bad character evidence and is not automatically admissible in court.
Police were also told by associates that around the time of the killing, Michael and Anthony would target men because of their sexuality, referring to this in their own words as ‘queer bashing’.
The Crown Prosecution Service took the view that there was a significant amount of evidence which showed that other attacks had been carried out on lone men in the area around the same time, demonstrating that Littler was not the victim of an isolated incident, but one of a series of targeted attacks.
In this case the similarities between the attack on Anthony Littler and the similar but non-fatal offences committed in the same area, and the accounts from others which said Michael and Anthony were responsible, were too great to ignore.
The accounts of these other attacks to the police at the time were read out to the court. It was the prosecution’s case that hostility towards the victim’s perceived sexuality was likely to have been a motivating factor in the attack.
A jury took just three hours to reach a guilty verdict for both of the brothers. They remanded in custody to be sentenced on 3 July.
