ORGREAVE: THE BLOODY TRUTH

C4 series piles pressure on No10 to hold public inquiry

- MARK JEFFERIES

SHOCKING new film footage will pile pressure on the Government to hold a public inquiry into the Battle of Orgreave during the 1984 Miners' Strike.

Forty years on, unseen clips show police brutality towards strikers, with their heads heavily bleeding.

Channel 4's three-part series also includes miners speaking on camera for the first time after suffering physical and mental scars.

It shows the clashes on June 18, 1984, at the coking works in Orgreave, South Yorks, that were not fully covered by the broadcast media due to their vantage point on the day.

Miner Arthur Critchlow recalls trying to flee the picket line but was struck with a truncheon when he stopped to help an injured man.

He says: "Fractured skull. By the time we got to the holding area, the blood had gone down my back, down my legs JACKE and into my socks. I think about it most days and you do get upset but you have to drop it. Otherwise it will devour you." Miner Stef Wysocki was pictured being dragged away by two officers.

He says: "Both of them frog-marched me down the street. I got down to the police cordon where shields were.

"They bounced me off shields. I got fists and knees coming at me all over." Tony Munday, a serving officer at Orgreave, claims the police tactic was normally to disable people.