Nicholas Jacobs says Blakelock family 'must feel angry'

The man cleared of killing PC Keith Blakelock has said he would feel "angry and disappointed at the system" if he was a member of the police officer's family.

Speaking to BBC Newsnight, Nicholas Jacobs said he would "be outside the courts, petitioning" if he were in the family's place.

Mr Jacobs, 45, was found not guilty of murder and manslaughter last week.

PC Blakelock was stabbed 43 times at Broadwater Farm in Tottenham in 1985.

Mr Jacobs said: "If I had to sit down in a court for six weeks and hear that so-called justice about someone else then I would be angry and disappointed at the system and the establishment my husband died for.

"That's me personally - not taking nothing away from PC Blakelock's family and how they feel."

PC Blakelock, 40, was repeatedly stabbed, and attempts made to decapitate him, as he tried to protect firefighters tackling a blaze at the height of the unrest on the Broadwater Farm estate on 6 October 1985.

A day earlier estate resident Cynthia Jarrett had died of heart failure after four policeman burst into her home during a raid.

When asked by Newsnight about his reaction at the time of the officer's killing, Mr Jacobs admitted he felt he had missed the main event.

"It did cross my mind because, like I said, at that time the wickedness that the police used to do to the black community, yeah, it was celebration time," he said.

"But at the same time Miss Jarrett, in my eyes, had been killed. The accident that was supposed to have happened, no-one was hearing that."

During the trial, the jury heard Mr Jacobs had allegedly written a poem, while serving time in a juvenile detention centre, in which he boasted about "chopping" at the officer.

However, Mr Jacobs said he got the contents of the poem from the media.

"I didn't kill PC Blakelock - I wasn't in that group that heard about firemen at the shop or whatever," he said.

"I wrote this rap poem and they're trying to say it is a confession - all that it is, is what was played out in the press - they talk about this baying mob attacking him and all this and trying to chop off his head.

"All that I just got from the press."

Mr Jacobs said it was "without a doubt" that nobody has a right to take another person's life.

The jury at the Old Bailey heard from three witnesses who claimed they saw the then 16-year-old Mr Jacobs take part in the attack, but his defence team questioned their credibility. After four hours of deliberations, Mr Jacobs was found not guilty of murder and manslaughter last Wednesday.

See the interview on Newsnight on 16 April at 22:30 BST on BBC Two or afterwards on the iPlayer.