Two brothers have been sentenced for the 1984 murder of civil servant Anthony Littler, a case that remained unsolved for decades until an undercover police operation and a slip of the tongue by one of the accused. Michael Stewart, now in his fifties, and his brother have been jailed for the killing of Littler, who was 42 at the time of his death.
The investigation into Littler's murder, which occurred in East Finchley, London, gained new momentum through a covert operation involving undercover officers posing as individuals who could help Michael Stewart evade justice. Over several months, Michael repeatedly implicated his brother in the crime while maintaining his own innocence.
During a secretly recorded conversation in December 2023, an undercover officer, Anna, confronted Michael with the suggestion that his nephew had killed someone. Michael responded, "My nephew didn't kill nobody. It was my brother." By this point, the investigation had moved beyond the covert phase, and Michael had been arrested and questioned about the murder, only to be released while the operation continued around him.
A critical breakthrough occurred in March 2024 during a police interview. When denying he had been covered in blood on the night of the murder, Michael blurted out, "Well if I'm up the top of the alleyway keeping look[out]... how would I have got blood all over me? Come on." Prosecutor John Price KC informed the jury that no one – not the police, not his family, and no witness – had ever accused Michael of being the lookout. This detail, absent from any prior accounts, existed only in Michael's memory and placed him at the scene.
This admission also shed light on a mysterious 999 call made two minutes after the attack. A young man, from a phone box near the alley, had requested an ambulance for a heavily bleeding man before hanging up without identifying himself. The call was initially dismissed as a false alarm. The prosecution argued that only someone present at the scene could have known the victim's condition so quickly. They identified the caller as a 15-year-old Michael Stewart, who had acted as the lookout and was the first to flee, alerting others to the dying man his group had abandoned.
The murder weapon was never recovered, and the motive for the attack remains unclear. The investigation initially faced challenges, with limited forensic evidence and few witnesses. The alleyway where the attack occurred was described as a long, narrow paved footpath bordered by dense bushes and trees, a location captured in photographs from 1984. The discovery of Littler's body was made on a footpath near East Finchley Underground station.
The undercover operation, which included obtaining recordings of conversations, proved instrumental in securing the convictions. The court heard how Michael's statements, particularly his inadvertent confession to being the lookout, provided the crucial link to solving the 40-year-old crime.