| Nina Alexandra Mackay | |
|---|---|
| Metropolitan Police Service | |
| Died 24 October 1997 (aged 25) | |
| Place of birth | Essex, England |
| Place of death | Stratford, London, England |
| Years of service | 1992-1997 |
| Rank | Woman Police Constable |
WPC Nina Alexandra Mackay was a police officer in London's Metropolitan Police Service who was fatally stabbed on 24 October 1997 by a paranoid schizophrenic man she was attempting to arrest. She is the only female police officer in Great Britain to have been stabbed to death while on duty and her killing was the first of a female officer since the murder of Yvonne Fletcher in 1984.
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Mackay was from Essex, the only daughter of Sidney MacKay, a former Chief Superintendent in London's Metropolitan Police Service. She had served in that force's Territorial Support Group for five years until her death.[1]
On 24 October 1997, Mackay went with colleagues to a property in Arthingworth Street in Stratford, east London, to arrest a man who was in breach of bail conditions.[1]
After forcing entry into the bedsit Mackay led her colleagues into the hallway where she was confronted by a man armed with a seven-and-a-half inch bladed kitchen knife. He stabbed the officer once in the chest. She was taken to hospital by ambulance but died two hours later from her injuries. The suspect was arrested and later charged with her murder.
At the Old Bailey in October 1998, unemployed paranoid schizophrenic Magdi Elgizouli was convicted of Mackay's manslaughter. The British-born 30-year-old of Sudanese origin had been charged with murder but the jury accepted his defence of diminished responsibility. He was detained indefinitely, initially at Rampton Secure Hospital in Nottinghamshire[1] and later at St. Bernard's Hospital in west London.[2]
It was subsequently reported that prior to killing Mackay, Elgizouli had served time in prison for shoplifting, was on bail for assaulting a police officer and possessing a knife, and had stopped taking his medication for his schizophrenia. He had also smoked cannabis, which had apparently exacerbated his condition, and had an expressed hatred of the police.[2]
A 1999 inquiry into Mackay's death recommended that mentally-ill people should be given greater support and that guidance on helping patients take their medication needed to be improved. Despite calls from Mackay's family, the report did not recommend that patients be compelled to take their medication.[3]
Ten years after his conviction, Elgizouli was released.[4]
In 1998, the Police Memorial Trust erected a stone memorial to Mackay at the place where she was fatally stabbed in Arthingworth Street, Stratford.[5] The memorial was unveiled by then-Prime Minister Tony Blair.[6]