The Glasgow crime of the police officer who was stabbed

Lewis, 28, was about to clock off that same Friday afternoon when he was called to help colleagues in Norfolk Street in the Gorbals.

An 18-year-old youth, Philip McFadden, was wandering about the area brandishing a large knife and trying to kick in the shutter doors of several locked shop premises.

McFadden lived in nearby Wellcroft Place and the police had been called there earlier over reports that he had threatened his brother.

When the officers reached the family flat, McFadden said to them: “I am going to kill you.”

They immediately went back out to their car to call for backup.

McFadden’s two sisters and a young child, McFadden’s niece, who had been in the property were also led to safety.

At this point, McFadden left the flat and headed for the city centre passing along Gorbals Street and then Bridge Street.

Eventually, he was cornered in Norfolk Street by Lewis and several of his colleagues.

However, during the struggle to disarm him, Lewis was stabbed once by McFadden – shortly before 3.50pm.

Lewis, then 28, was rushed to nearby Victoria Infirmary but died less than three hours later despite the best efforts of surgeons.

Sergeant William Blair, who sustained stab wounds to his leg and arms in trying to subdue McFadden, was released from the same hospital after treatment.

Meanwhile, McFadden had been overpowered and taken into police custody. He appeared at Glasgow Sheriff Court the following Monday on a charge of murdering Constable Fulton.

More than 500 people attended Lewis’s funeral in his home town of New Cumnock in Ayrshire while others stood outside listening to the service on loudspeakers.

The minister The Rev Andrew McGurk, described the PC as a faithful guardian of law and order, adding: “We poignantly reminded of the dangers which police officers face day to day in the line of duty, and of the ultimate price which Lewis has paid.”

It emerged that Lewis had been due to go on holiday with his wife and son at the end of his shift and had previously received a Royal Humane Society bravery award for rescuing a man from the River Clyde.

McFadden’s case was called at the High Court in Edinburgh in September where he was found insane and unfit to plead and ordered to be detained at the State Hospital in Carstairs, Lanarkshire.

The court was also told, by his lawyer Joe Beltrami, that McFadden was too ill to attend court in person.

Following Lewis’s murder, Strathclyde Police decided to begin issuing all police officers with stab-proof vests.

The cops involved in detaining McFadden, including Constable Fulton, were armed only with old-fashioned wooden truncheons.

Other measures such as CS gas incapacitant sprays, side-handed batons, rigid handcuffs and better self-defence training were introduced as well as new procedures for dealing with people with mental health problems.

In 2000, McFadden now 25 was thought to have recovered sufficiently to stand trial for murder at the High Court in Glasgow.

He had started behaving normally three years ago after receiving a new drug treatment.

After hearing all the expert medical evidence the jury found him not guilty of Lewis’s murder because he was insane at the time of the killing.

McFadden was then returned to Carstairs.

The trial judge, Lord Nimmo Smith, said lessons needed to be learned from what he described as a ‘tragic and distressing case.’ He also praised the bravery of Lewis Fulton and William Blair.

It emerged that McFadden, who was diagnosed as schizophrenic at the age of 14, had begun refusing his medication in July 1993.

He normally received it in the form of injections but had stopped attending the sessions claiming that he felt much better.

On the morning of Lewis’s murder, he had been displaying signs of his schizophrenia.

He said that someone had cut off his hands. He pointed to scaffolding that had been erected on a building opposite his home and said that people had been crucified on it.

His lordship also highlighted the response of the medical authorities to McFadden’s mother’s pleas for help for her son.

Mary McFadden made nine phone calls on the morning of Lewis’s murder and pleaded with her local GP surgery for help.

However, a doctor refused to attend and phoned the police instead, which resulted in the two officers going to Wellcroft Place.

Nimmo Smith said there were issues concerning how people suffering from schizophrenia could be made to take medication.

The judge told McFadden that while he was not responsible for his actions, he had done “some terrible things”.

Speaking afterwards, Georgette Fulton, Lewis’s mother said: “It was important for us to have this trial so that we could see the full circumstances of what happened to Lewis made public, “The verdict is the best we could have hoped for.

“Lessons need to be learned from what happened to Lewis and we are confident that they will be.

“Our main feeling right now is one of relief that it is finally all over.”

In September 2002, a Fatal Accident Inquiry was held into Lewis’s death, which lasted seven days.

Sheriff Edward Bowen found that had protective equipment been introduced earlier it might have saved Lewis’s life.

He added: “It is self-evident that the availability of such equipment would have materially reduced the risk of injury to officers dealing with McFadden.”

However, he concluded that the police did their best in the circumstances to deal with the unfolding situation.

He also ruled that a decision not to deploy firearm officers at the time had been the right one.

The sheriff added: “It is easy to accept with the benefit of hindsight that the situation might have been handled differently and more effectively, for example, by taking steps to secure the house and prevent McFadden from leaving.

“One must, however, have regard to the information which was available to the police and the speed at which events evolved.

“The police were summoned, and responded rapidly, to a request to attend at what was on the face of it a domestic incident.

“There was no reason to anticipate that McFadden would leave the house and the fact that he did so, and proceeded to wander the streets carrying a large knife, was not reasonably foreseeable.”

In 2006, it emerged that McFadden, now 30, had changed his name and was being prepared for release back into society. He had been moved out of Carstairs into “supported accommodation” in Glasgow. Little is now known of his whereabouts.

Since Lewis’s murder, Christine Fulton has dedicated herself to helping the bereaved families of police officers across Britain, who have either died or been killed while on duty.

In 2003, she co-founded the charity Care of Police Survivors (Cops) drawing on her own experiences of losing a loved one.

That same year she helped set Scottish Police Memorial Trust which remembers officers who have died on duty since 1812.

A granite plinth featuring their names, including Lewis, was unveiled in 2004 by Princess Anne in the grounds of Police Scotland’s HQ in, Tulliallan, Fife.

In 2008, Christine was made an MBE for her work with COPS, which has now supported hundreds of grieving police families across Britain.

In an interview at the time, she said it taken her years to come to terms with the loss of her husband – and had set up COPS as a way to help others in a similar position.

Christine added: “It’s about having someone to talk to that understands what you are going through.”

She described herself as being “just numb” after her husband’s death concluding: “Perhaps if I had somebody to talk to who I feel would have understood, that would have made a difference.”

To this date, Lewis is the last police officer in Scotland to have been murdered while on duty. In his published FAI judgement 21 years ago, Sheriff Bowen made sure his bravery would never be forgotten.

He added: “PC Fulton courageously and selflessly tackled an armed and dangerous man. In so doing he gave his life in the service of the community.

“One can only express admiration for the dedication shown by him, and by the other officers present on this occasion.”