This week 10, 20, 30 years ago

10 Years Ago

A dog owner was accused of killing a man by dropping a fridge on his head after accusing him of kidnapping his pet.

Cameron McFly, 38, is alleged to have attacked Richard Ward, 37, after leading him around the back of a supermarket.

The Old Bailey heard McFly, of Herlwyn Gardens, Hebdon Road, Tooting, punched and kicked Mr Ward before stealing his cash and using it to buy cigarettes and alcohol.

Jurors heard he then returned to finish off his attack by dropping the fridge on the man’s head as his flatmate Danny Samuel, 36, joined in the beating.

McFly is then said to have burnt his clothes and shaved his hair to avoid capture.

McFly admits attacking Mr Ward, but says he was suffering from mental illness at the time. Samuel denied being involved in the attack.

 

The family of a musician who died in police custody called for changes in the way people with mental illness are treated by police and health services.

Sean Rigg died in a holding cell at Brixton Police Station, in Brixton Road, at around 8.30pm on August 21, 2008.

He was 40 and had lived for 20 years with a mental illness. His family had spent four years fighting to be given the full details surrounding his death.

Sean’s sisters, Marcia Rigg-Samuel and Samantha Rigg-David, and brother Wayne Rigg called for urgent reforms.

 

Hundreds of phone and internet customers were cut off for several days after would-be metal thieves tried to steal cables.

About 400 BT lines were affected when cables were cut last week, leaving customers in Peckham unable to make calls from their homes or use the internet.

The damage to the underground cables was so bad that the company’s engineers were still trying to reconnect the last of those affected on Wednesday.

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20 Years Ago

Campaigners staged a protest against metric measurements by changing 70 road signs in an early morning strike.

Vauxhall became the latest target of the Active Resistance to Metrification. It was the third time the road signs, which gave distances in metres and kilometres, were targeted by the group, who changed the measurements to miles and yards.

Earlier in the month, the group had changed 13 signs in Lewisham.

 

Roman artefacts were unearthed by archaeologists excavating remains under a demolished building in Bermondsey.

Combs, keys and coins dating back 2,000 years were found at a site in Tabard Street which developer Berkley Homes planned to develop.

Archaeologists had also unearthed the remains of a mediaeval cobbled road made of animal bones.

 

Ravenous rats plunged a block of flats into darkness after they gnawed their way through a high-voltage power line.

Almost 40 flats in the block in Merganser Court, off Edward Street, New Cross, were left without electricity over the August Bank Holiday weekend.

A generator was installed on the Saturday, giving power back to people’s homes, but residents complained that all the food in their fridges and freezers had spoilt by the time the problem was fixed on the Monday.

Each resident affected was offered £50 in compensation.

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30 Years Ago

Police claimed a victory in their fight against crack dealers who were caught red-handed in a crowded high street.

Undercover officers bought large amounts of the class-A drug from street dealers in broad daylight in Peckham High Street during the two-and-ahalf-month operation.

The offenders were arrested after the deals were secretly filmed. Officers said dealers were making up to £1,500 a day selling crack in the high street.

 

Squatters launched an appeal to be allowed to remain in a building during the winter.

The group of about 30 squatters, who had occupied disused social services buildings in Church Street, Camberwell, hung banners from the windows of the building in protest against Southwark council’s clampdown on squatting.

They were also protesting against proposed government legislation aimed at preventing travellers from roaming across the country.

Many of the squatters had returned to South London after travelling between free festivals over the summer.

A spokesman for the Southwark Homeless Action Group, which opened up the squat, said they were protesting against the council’s policy of turfing out squatters and then leaving the buildings empty for years.

 

That was the stark warning from East Dulwich police who said youngsters were being knocked off their bikes by the young robbers and expensive mountain bikes were top of the hit list as they could quickly be sold on.

The number of bikes being pinched, often by young people using violence, rose by more than 15 per cent in 12 months.
But police warned that in stealing the bikes, the youths were committing serious crimes.