Gary Pearson was a brave cop. Before a hushed-up shooting changed the course of his career he had shown his mettle at the sharp end of the thin blue line.
Ten days before he lost his left eye when it was shot out by a Saudi royal bodyguard during a training exercise Gary had been part of a team that arrested two men armed with a sawn-off shotgun who were about to commit a robbery on a family home.
On another occasion he single handedly arrested a gunman who was about to rob a pub in Swinton.
When fire engulfed the Woolworths store in Manchester city centre on May 8th 1979 he drove a car at a door to try and help trapped customers escape. Their screams haunted him.
But on November 15th 1983 his life changed forever deep in the Kielder Forest in Northumberland close to the border with Scotland. What happened was kept a secret for seven years until he took GMP to court and received an out of court settlement and the Manchester Evening News then revealed the cover-up.
Now his ordeal will be the subject of a new book and his case is helping to spearhead a campaign by an ex-policeman for the thousands of emergency workers from all three services who were forced to retire through injury to get the recognition they deserve.
At the time Gary, then aged 30, and living in Prestwich, was a Detective Constable, and an aid in the firearms department. “We were in Kielder Forest near the Kielder Dam. We were training Saudi and Bahrain officers in anti-ambush techniques and firearms scenarios. They were police officers and army.
“The system in those countries is that they are more like paramilitary than police. We had gone up in a couple of personnel carriers. The exercise had finished and I was sat in the front passenger seat of one.
“This Saudi officer came running out from the bushes, opposite the van, fired a couple of shots which were blanks. He was eight to ten feet away when he first came out. Then he ran round to the driver’s side and put the .38 revolver up to the window of the driver’s side. Then there was this loud bang. The windows went in and I felt as though someone had punched me in the face.
“I put my hand up to the left hand side of my face and put my finger inside by cheek and I realised I was quite badly injured. I believe he had inserted a .32 blank into the cylinder of the gun and then put a .38 after it. The .32 was the piece that came out like a bullet head. All of the cheekbone had gone.
“The blank had gone into the eye socket and blown up the back of the eye which destroyed the optic nerve. There was a lot of tissue loss and bone loss. Doctors said they had to take out what was left of the eye as leaving it in would be a risk as it could affect the other eye and I would go blind.”
In the immediate aftermath of the incident Gary and hospital staff were told not to talk about it. “I was taken to hospital in Carlisle and my face was so badly swollen I couldn’t see. A nurse came in and said the hospital was in lockdown. They had been told not to tell anyone what had gone on and not to contact my next of kin, my wife.
“The nurse didn’t think it was fair. I gave her my phone number and she rang my wife. After she had spoken to her my wife got a phone call from a senior GMP officer that had come up to Carlisle after they found out there had been a shooting. He said ‘your husband has got something in his eye’. She wanted to travel up and he said ‘now now dear, let’s not panic. I will let you know what happens.’
After Gary had surgery and the extent of the injury he had suffered was clear his wife was called by police and told to get to the hospital. She was not given a blue light lift in a police car, but had to drive herself from Manchester to Carlisle with her two-year-old son. His wife and son walked past his hospital bed as his injuries were so bad they did not recognise him.
Gary said: “The welfare officer from the police up there arranged for her to stay at a nearby borading house. She stayed there with my lad for close to a week before we were brought back down to Manchester. A couple of weeks after that I got a bill through the post from the GMP welfare department asking for over £200 for her stay. I paid it.”
He added: “We had just bought our first home; the mortgage was very high and I was dependent on my wage plus overtime. Now l was on the sick we were finding it pretty hard to manage financially.
“I contacted the head of welfare and told him I was paying into the forces insurance scheme and that it said for the loss of an eye you would get £5000, and it said there would be an immediate payout.
“He stated it wasn’t immediate payment and that I should either get a loan from a relative or ask my bank for a loan. I told him the advert on the poster near the armoury at Rochdale nick said ‘immediate payouts’ and I’d get the details from the notice. Colleagues and I searched every police station and not one advertisement poster could be found. They had all disappeared.
“Throughout all my stay in the hospital and my two months at home, l was never visited by police or welfare, not even a phone call.”
He paid for his face to be rebuilt using titanium plates to replace the lost cheekbone, and his eye socket was repaired using flesh from inside his mouth.
“I eventually went back to work but only behind a desk. l spent the next 12-18 months in a fog. I put up with that and being in the office for the next 6 years. It was during this time that a detective inspector first referred to me as ‘Cyclops’. I could have either punched him in the face and lost everything or leave the job I loved, I left.
“From being shot to leaving not one senior officer asked how I was or gave me any explanation as to why I had been injured. I was left to get on with it and keep my mouth shut.
“In about 1990, I took GMP to court for compensation. They wouldn’t even agree the Saudis were in the country but in 1990 I received an out-of-court settlement’. Gary received a £45,000 settlement. The Saudi who fired the revolver was never prosecuted.
“At the time of the incident the surgeons were worried that some of the debris from the shot had penetrated my brain. There was a piece of primer from the blank you could see on the X-Rays that they couldn’t get out. It was about seven years later that I had an operation and it was taken out. It had gone through the eye socket.
‘I joined Manchester and Salford police cadets in 1971, later becoming a police constable in 1972. I’ve had several encounters with violent criminals and have had bones broken and even been hit by a car. I mention this not being big-headed or brag but only to say what I did in the police to and to show I gave the job everything.
“I was protection officer to the Pope when he came to Heaton Park. On the 5th November 1983 I was on an armed surveillance. There was two lads with a sawn-off shotgun and they were going to break into a house and we intervened.
“In the summer of 83 I was on patrol in Swinton when a guy flagged me down and said there was a guy on the top floor of a car park in a red Mini who was acting strange. I drove up there and could see there was somebody in the Mini.
“I parked up behind him, but he didn’t know I was there because he was looking intently below at the street. I walked up to the car and he had a mask on. I saw him look over to the passenger seat and I saw he had a double barrelled sawn off shotgun. It had been his intention to rob the Bull pub just across the road.
“Adrenalin then kicked in and I opened the door and dragged him out. That’s the sort of jobs I was doing.”
Ex Sussex police officer, Tom Curry, is leading a campaign for officers like Gary and those whose careers in the fire and ambulance service that were also curtailed by injury to get the recognition they deserve. His book, ‘Dysfunctional Police Family Add Insult to Injury’, highlighted the issue.
Tom said: “On March 9th of this year, the welcome posthumous ‘Elizabeth Emblem’ was finally approved recognising the ultimate sacrifice of those who lost their lives carrying out their duty.
“However, once again the severely injured were overlooked and forgotten. How can it be right to recognise those killed but not those who barely survived but instead sustained a life-changing injury and in many cases were only saved by medical intervention?
“This is a long-standing national scandal of the overlooking of the forgotten injured, such as Gary, which needs correcting, ASAP and that is what my campaign seeks to achieve.”
Tom and a retired senior detective have both carried out their own review of Gary’s case. Tom is currently writing a book on the case called “Eye Shot (40 Year Search For The Truth). He believes that the GMP investigation into the shooting was flawed. To this day Gary does not know why he was shot.
Commenting on Gary’s case he said: “Have you ever heard a more shocking uncaring story than this? If anyone still believes there is such a mythical beast as a ‘Police Family’ then this is surely testament that it is nothing more than mere propaganda. Would a member of any genuine family refer to a loved one who had lost an eye as ‘Cyclops’?
“Must we really believe there was no one at all within police circles to drive Gary’s wife the 220 miles to Carlisle to be at the bedside of one of their very own who possibly may not survive? If those on duty were ALL committed duty wise, which is unlikely, and there was this so-called ‘Police Family’, then surely someone would have volunteered for the driving job during their own free time?
“There are far too many other brave officers who also were treated badly and their health and job sacrificed but have never been recognised with a medal. The reason being that there are other medal awards already available for ‘gallantry’ But nothing for injury without the high bar set for gallantry, which is only rarely achieved.
“Most officers are deprived of an opportunity to show gallantry because they are attacked instantly and without warning or sustain an injury in another way. That is where the problem lies and why so many killed and injured officers in the past 200 years have received no medal recognition whatsoever.
“This disgrace was partially corrected by the introduction of the posthumous Elizabeth Emblem, meaning that the next of kin of all public servants who were killed on duty – and sadly will be in the future – and backdated to 1948 will be eligible for the award. However, the flaw is the surviving injured are once again overlooked, hence the important need to adopt my campaign proposal.
“My proposal is in no way for a medal for bravery, heroism or gallantry but merely to recognise the health and job sacrifice of the injured. Gary’s uncaring treatment is not entirely unique but I have to say it is by far the most shocking extreme example I have ever heard.”
To his immense credit Gary showed great stoicism after the shooting, although he admits that the “Cyclops” comment had incensed him.
“For someone to speak to me like that was out of order. It wasn’t as if I was desk bound all my career – I had been out and done it. I was part of the fabric of the firearms department. I had been out risking life and limb and you’ve got some limp wristed individual calling you this. I joined the old Manchester and Salford force from school, which became GMP in 1974. I had always wanted to be a bobby,” he said.
Asked whether he considered the shooting an accident or reckless behaviour he said: “I have always said I didn’t want to think about anything which may start feelings of anger. I had a wife and a son and then my little girl came along. I didn’t want to be in that position where I became bitter. So I just thought, ‘it’s happened’.
“I did not realise until I spoke to Tom just how many bobbies are in the same position. My injury, I don’t think, compared to some is that bad. He put it into perspective when he said to me ‘a Special Constable can work for nine years and get a medal’ So if I am standing next to them at a Remembrance Day parade he has a medal showing his years of service and I’ve got nothing. I did not get the years in for a long service medal.
“Even though I got the settlement, it is hard to explain the pain I am in all the time. When it gets cold it is worse. Because I have titanium plates where my cheek bone is – and the surgeon did a great job – your face becomes as cold as the weather outside. The pain is like if you crunch an ice cube and the numb pain afterwards. But it is continuous until I can warm my face up again. You just have to put up with it.”
Tom has cross-party support for his campaign in Parliament with veteran MP Sir Roger Gale championing it plus the support of the Police Federation of England and Wales, the National Association of Police Officers, the Northern Ireland Police Federation and the main unions in the fire and ambulance service.
A spokesperson from Greater Manchester Police said: “As time has passed, substantial changes have been made to policing around provision and welfare of officers and staff. While it is of immense regret that Mr Pearson and his family were treated this way, we know that if an officer was to encounter an incident of this nature today, they would receive the very best care and support from the force.
“At the time of the incident, a thorough investigation was conducted, and a decision was made not to authorise charges against the involved parties.”
Details of Tom’s campaign can be found out: https://www.facebook.com/groups/1415295802502023
