THE controversy surrounding the shooting of a WPC will be re-examined in a new television programme on Thursday.

Yvonne Fletcher, from Semley, near Shaftesbury, was gunned down as she policed a demonstration outside the Libyan Embassy in London in April 1984.

In ITV’s Real Crime series, former Daily Echo reporter Mark Austin will piece together events leading up to and following her murder.

The shooting triggered a political and diplomatic storm, but nobody has ever been brought to justice for her death, despite Libya admitting responsibility in 1999.

ITV says that previously unseen evidence shown in the programme this week suggests that there might have been enough evidence to mount a prosecution for conspiracy to murder against two Libyans – Mohammed Matouk and Abdulgader Baghdadi.

Using eyewitness testimony, police diagrams and photographs, the programme will outline their alleged movements on the day.

The former British ambassador to Libya, Oliver Miles, will describe how he was summoned to a late-night meeting in Tripoli with Libyan government officials just over 12 hours before Yvonne Fletcher was shot.

He tells the programme: “They told me that there was a demonstration planned for the following morning outside the Libyan office in London and that I was to get it stopped. I said, ‘You must be joking. You have demonstrations outside my embassy from time to time. The same thing will happen in London.’ “They said, ‘You don’t understand, this is different.

“‘This is very important. We are giving you a really serious message. You must have it stopped’.”

Friend and colleague John Murray, who was feet away when the WPC was shot, adds: “I said to Yvonne in that ambulance, ‘Yvonne you’ll be ok and we will get whoever did this. Don’t worry, we’ll get them.’”