Liddle Towers (died 9 February 1976) was a 39 year old electrician and amateur boxer from Chester-le-Street, Co. Durham, England, who died following a spell in police custody in 1976.
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Towers was arrested outside the Key Club in Birtley on 16 January 1976 by PC Goodner. After a struggle he was put into a dog van by six policemen and taken to Gateshead police station. Later, at 4 am, he was taken from the station to Queen Elizabeth Hospital because he complained of not feeling well, and, after an examination which apparently revealed no injury and nothing wrong with him, he was taken back to the cells. He was discharged later that same morning at 10 o'clock[1].
Both the taxi driver who took Towers home and his local GP, Dr. Alan Powney, who saw him later that day at 2 o'clock, gave evidence that was consistent with Towers' own account of having been assaulted in the cells. Towers told his friend: 'They gave us a bloody good kicking outside the Key Club, but that was naught to what I got when I got inside'[1]. Towers died on 9 February 1976 at Dryburn Hospital, County Durham from injuries received at the hands of the police during the night of 15-16 January.
On 8 October 1976, an inquest into the death of Towers returned a verdict of 'justifiable homicide'. The verdict was widely criticised.
Punk band the Angelic Upstarts released a single entitled 'The Murder of Liddle Towers' in 1978. Sex Pistols producer Dave Goodman released a record called 'Justifiable Homicide'. The Tom Robinson Band dedicated their 1979 album, TRB Two to Mrs. Mary Towers, the mother of Liddle Towers. The song Blue Murder on this album relates to the death of Towers.
In 1977, the mod band The Jam were critical of the police in their song "Time for Truth" which contains the lyric "Bring forward the six pigs, We wanna see them swing so high, Liddle Towers!" Skinhead band The Crux also did a song called "Liddle Towers" about the incident.
In June 1978, the 'justifiable homicide' verdict was set aside by the Queen's Bench Divisional Court, which ordered a new inquest[2]. The second inquest, held in Bishop Auckland in October 1978, reached a verdict of 'death by misadventure'[3].